I discussed the first point with Mr. Godin. To sum it up in a single sentence, I'd say that the intention expressed in the preamble to the act should also be reflected elsewhere in that act.
The second point concerns the intake, integration and francization of immigrants. The federal government has established a language test requirement in its citizenship legislation, which is significant. It gives people across Canada a choice. However, that standard, which makes sense, shouldn't be applied, in Quebec's case, to help slow the decline of French within its borders or to increase its capacity to take in new immigrants. That might enable Quebec to maintain the pace of intake in the rest of Canada.
As regards the third point, we must all be aware that the Official Languages Act has an extension in the form of the federal spending power. However, that power partly intrudes into the provinces' jurisdiction. For there to be true cooperative federalism, there must be a federal-provincial agreement on this issue, that is to say on the spending power associated with the official language policy, at least in Quebec's case.
We could hope for, and one day obtain, a right to opt out with compensation. I don't want to give the impression of being out of step with the other witnesses, but we must be aware of the impact of language clauses within Quebec. By that I mean the imposition of language clauses not specifically provided for under the act or an agreement between Quebec and the federal government. In some instances, the federal government requires private businesses and individuals to meet a standard of bilingualism that is at odds with the policy of French as a common and official language but respectful of the rights of the historical anglophone minority. We must reestablish a balance if we truly want to retain that objective.
Lastly, the fourth point concerns the act's application to federally regulated businesses as it pertains to the predominance of French. I think the fact that businesses are given a choice is somewhat hypocritical. It's as though legislators didn't want to follow their logic to its conclusion. Giving businesses a choice is, in a way, a sham. I think the bill should have gone further.
Those, in short, are the four important points that I wanted to propose to improve the bill.