Thank you, Mr. Chair.
With respect to amendment LIB‑8, I move that Bill C‑13, in Clause 6, be amended by adding after line 8 on page 5 the following:
“re‑establishment” means, in relation to the demographic weight of French linguistic minority communities, a return to the demographic weight of all members of those communities whose first official language spoken is French to the level it had at the time of the census of population of Canada taken by Statistics Canada in 1971; (“rétablissement”)
As I've mentioned before, we are witnessing a major demographic decline of francophones in Canada, for several reasons. This decline has had a considerable impact on francophone minority communities, whose demographic weight has decreased over time.
In many francophone minority communities, the decline of French is impacting certain services such as child care, health care and other service delivery programs due to the lack of qualified francophone staff in these communities.
By ensuring that the demographic weight is re‑established to the level it had at the time of the 1971 Statistics Canada census of Canada's population, people living in a francophone minority community will have access to the basic services they need, without having to wait long periods of time or travel long distances.
Many stakeholders in business, social services and health care have made this observation. They have talked about how much this decline affects the services offered. To fill this gap, some are looking for workers abroad.
This amendment is related to the one I introduced last time. Both aim to re‑establish francophone communities, which continue to grow across Canada.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.