Thank you for your question.
We consider language clauses very important. They are one of the six priorities we've presented to you. First and foremost, they enable the federal government to agree with the provinces and territories on ways to support their linguistic minorities. They also provide a way for the federal government to invest directly in francophone and Acadian communities where there's no agreement. The direct investment that we propose is also consistent with the federal government's constitutional spending power, including in areas of provincial jurisdiction.
As you said, our communities expect governments to agree to support the francophonie, but, if that's impossible, they should absolutely have access to public services in their language. As you know, we're too often forgotten as a result of federal, provincial and territorial dynamics. The importance of supporting francophone minorities is often forgotten or overlooked.
I was an assistant deputy minister in the New Brunswick government a long time ago, in the 1990s. That's more than 30 years ago. We were already calling for language clauses to facilitate our work as provincial public servants. For the governments…