Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to state that, contrary to what some of the previous speakers have said, the Official Languages Act has, for the past 52 years, been one of the main factors contributing to the decline of French in Quebec. The act is based on principles that go completely against the Quebec linguistic policy model, which leans more towards the principle of collective rights and territoriality and aims to make French the lingua franca within the territory of Quebec.
In every corner of the world where there are systems that are based on an institutional non‑territorial linguistic approach to bilingualism, such as the one imposed by the Official Languages Act on Quebec, we are witness to the assimilation of minority language groups. It is not a linguistic planning model that allows us to protect minority language speakers, and this is what we have been seeing for the past 52 years: census after census shows that more and more francophones are being assimilated outside of Quebec.
In Quebec, this imposed model has had the effect of speeding up the decline of French, on top of which Quebec francophones are using English more and more in the home. An increasing number of francophones are switching to English.
Outside of Quebec, almost 100% of allophones and newcomers switch to English, whereas in Quebec, we are barely managing to stem the tide thanks to supports such as the Canada‑Quebec accord relating to Immigration or Bill 101, which was quickly weakened by the federal government, and all the mechanisms contained in the Official Languages Act.
We can't continue to lose ground. The very survival of French in Quebec is at stake. The very survival of French in Canada and in North America is at stake. Quebec is the only majority francophone state in North America and is the only state that could successfully integrate newcomers and ensure social cohesion. That's why it is extremely important that the federal government recognize this.
The circumstances surrounding the Laurendeau‑Dunton Commission were similar to what is happening now. There was a historic opportunity to give Quebeckers collective rights and honour the French language in Quebec. The Liberal government at the time did not seize the opportunity and did not follow up on any of the recommendations made by André Laurendeau. We know what happened afterwards.
I think it is inconceivable that the Official Languages Act and all the grant mechanisms that are contained therein only serve to reinforce English as an official language in Quebec. This is what we have seen. The speaker before me said that there are approximately 1.3 million anglophones in Quebec, but that's not quite true. In order to be able to say that, she included approximately 33% of immigrants in Quebec who are from anglophone countries and are commonly termed anglotropes. Quebec must integrate these immigrants and needs a 90% linguistic transfer rate of allophones towards French in order to simply maintain its demographic weight.
We are witnessing a Canadian government that seeks to almost openly reduce the number of francophones by using the first spoken official language as a gauge, which is how Ms. Lattanzio arrived at the total of 1.3 million. The federal government itself, by giving grants to all these groups by virtue of the Official Languages Act, has up until now sought to anglicize newcomers in all sorts of ways.
This amendment, which was also requested by the Quebec government, simply seeks to ensure that the Canadian government abides by the right of peoples to self-determination, in this case the Quebec people. It is the right to guarantee the future existence of its language and to make French the lingua franca. This would ensure social cohesion for all, including Quebec anglophones.