Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to our witnesses for being here today.
Today's meeting is special for me, because we have a representative of the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, the DSFM, here with us today. The committee is well aware of the challenges I encountered when I tried to enrol my children in the francophone day care centre in Thompson, and we know that these challenges are related to the worker shortage in early childhood education across Canada.
The committee also knows how pleased I am that the DSFM accepted my children, who are beginning kindergarten this year. If you can hear them in the background, it's because schools are closed today. It's a professional development day for the teachers. I must say that things have been going well for my children and that we've been speaking French to one another, even though the school is closed today.
I'd like to thank Mr. Laberge and Mr. Désilets for their testimony and for the clear message they have been sending out on what we can do at this historic moment to improve the bill and stop the decline in French across Canada, including Manitoba communities.
Mr. Laberge, the committee previously heard from Mr. Jean-François Parent, of the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité, which published a report last month about the shortage of francophone workers in many different fields, including education.
We also heard from Mr. Roger Lepage, who told us that the situation was more or less the same in Saskatchewan.
To what extent do you think the report's conclusions are applicable to Manitoba?