Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses who have come to help us improve Bill C‑13.
My first question is for the representatives of the Commission nationale des parents francophones.
I read the study entitled “Où sont passés les milliards $”, published in 1996. It provides a review of the official languages in education program. It notes that the program was initially intended to provide some redress after the long-standing prohibition of French schools. The French-language education system outside Quebec was very poor at that time.
One of the study's conclusions regarding the funding provided from 1970 to 1988 is that just 28.5% of the funding went to francophones outside Quebec for education in their first language. The anglophones of Quebec, on the other hand, which already had an over-funded system, received 47.7% of the funding for their schools. For second language education, it was 14.3% outside Quebec and 9.5% in Quebec. The study said that this really hurt francophones, who assimilated quickly and did not receive enough funding, since most of it went to the anglophones of Quebec.
Can you elaborate on that?