Thank you.
I would like to welcome our witnesses.
Ms. L'Heureux, from the Fédération des parents de la francophonie manitobaine, we are great admirers of your work. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a family event you organized at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain. My children were able to take part. From what I saw, there is really a lot of diversity in our community. There are people and families from all over and little kids from different origins, but they are all proud francophones. So I thank you for the work you do. We believe the best way to support your work is to listen to your recommendations and then to act, of course.
I would like to focus on the early childhood programs. I have spoken a number of times in this committee about the challenge my family faced. We were on a waiting list for a long time for my twins to be able to access the services of the Les Louveteaux child care centre, which is attached to our school in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine here in Thompson. There is room, but there are no staff. Because of the labour shortage, we were unfortunately never able to enrol my children for child care in French. This is important to me.
I want to go back to the issue of the demand here in Manitoba.
I'll switch over to English. I think this is also a very important issue for many who are of francophone background, but because of our history, we know that we don't necessarily speak French. We also know that many newcomers value their kids being able to speak French.
How significant is the demand that you're seeing among Manitobans for their kids to be able to access day care in French? Second to that, to what extent do you believe the federal government has a permanent role to play in supporting early childhood education in French, given that we know that French is on the decline and that we know that early childhood education in French is critical to be able to get kids on track to being francophone?