Yes, thank you very much, Ms. Kayabaga.
I'm the Minister of Official Languages, and I come from New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province in Canada. People often see good things happening in New Brunswick, but the official language minority communities, the francophones of New Brunswick, have recently faced some special challenges.
The current provincial government isn't really sensitive to the cause of New Brunswick's francophones. The premier of our province, Mr. Higgs, recently appointed a minister who has never supported official languages in New Brunswick to the special committee reviewing the province's Official Languages Act. That minister previously wanted to merge the regional francophone health authority with the anglophone authority. He has also made inappropriate comments about the province's Commissioner of Official Languages. So as you can see, language rights are threatened in New Brunswick. Recent comments have really been an affront to francophones.
We members from New Brunswick recently wrote a letter to Premier Higgs informing him that we were very concerned and no longer wanted his controversial minister to sit on the special committee. Six members from New Brunswick signed that letter. We had invited all federal MPs from New Brunswick to condemn the appointment, but four of those members chose not to sign the letter. I have to say that they were Conservative, not Liberal, members.