Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This amendment might seem unimportant, but it's significant. Back in 2019 or 2020, I believe, the Standing Committee on Official Languages got into a bit of a battle with the industry minister at the time, Mr. Bains, and the chief statistician of Canada. All the committee members, including those in the governing Liberal party, who unfortunately aren't here this morning, raised an uproar and banded together to ensure that the long- and short-form censuses enumerated rights holders.
If we want to improve the Official Languages Act, this amendment is crucially important, because it would ensure that the true situation of linguistic minority communities was captured so that they could receive adequate services. Adopting this amendment would show that the government was serious about taking action.
We are modernizing the Official Languages Act, so it's important to keep in mind that it was first drafted back in 1969 and, then, amended in the 1980s. We want to make progress, so I hope no one proposes a word like “estimate”, which would be a setback. We need to work earnestly. This amendment demands that we consider it carefully for the sake of all linguistic minority communities. Otherwise, we are just wasting our time. Unfortunately, I'm getting a bit fired up, but I hope you can hear the passion in my voice.
The bill states that the federal government “is committed to contributing periodically to an estimate of the number of children” of rights holders. That is still a way to avoid truly addressing the needs of linguistic minority communities on the ground. Members need to think seriously before voting against the amendment. The necessity of the amendment couldn't be more obvious, so we need to proceed accordingly. I am reaching out to every voting member of the committee and asking them to move forward, not backward, to look to the future and to truly achieve our goals.
Personally, I have three goals: stopping the decline of French, protecting both official languages, and promoting both official languages. However, we need specific data to do that work—not estimates. This amendment will prove how serious we are about achieving results.