We have not yet discussed the issue of official languages governance within the government. In the proposed bill, governance is still a shared responsibility between the Treasury Board and the Department of Canadian Heritage.
It is extremely important that any central agency be able to ensure coordination and governance of official languages within the federal system, but also that it make other departments aware of their obligations and ensure that they comply with them.
Currently, governance is shared between two departments. On the one hand, the Department of Canadian Heritage, which we call the lead department, is responsible for enforcing certain elements of part VII of the act, and on the other hand, the Treasury Board deals with other aspects. I think it's important that governance be more centralized within the federal government. That would be very helpful in developing guidelines, policies and so on.
We have not discussed governance today, but if you talk to the stakeholders, you will see that this issue comes up often. The issue of language provisions is often raised as well, not only by us, but by several other stakeholders. Of course, the issue of compliance mechanisms, linked to the commissioner's powers, also comes up often, as does the issue of immigration.
If we want to achieve substantive equality, it is also important to give ourselves the means to do so. These are found, for example, in part VII of the act. We have talked a lot about part VII; it is crucial to the development of our communities. I will be happy to send you information on this subject.
In my opinion, the Official Languages Act has two important components. The first is the services provided by the federal government that communicate with Canadians. This component is addressed in parts IV and V. The other component, the one addressed in part VII, concerns the communities.
If we want to maintain the concept of linguistic duality in Canada, we must ensure that our official language minority communities are robust and strong. If we are to truly implement institutional bilingualism, Canadians must be able to receive services and communications in the official language of their choice in normal times, but especially in emergency situations.
It is therefore important to review the act. I come back to what I said earlier, we must ensure that the act meets the needs of Canadians, now and in the future, but also that it is technology-neutral, that is, that technology does not become an excuse for not respecting the Official Languages Act.
I will stop here.