In the bill, the proposed wording for part VII of the Official Languages Act begins with a series of commitments. These cover four areas: protection and promotion of French; learning in the minority language; section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; enhancement of the vitality of minorities, and promotion of English and French. This shows the federal government's intention to commit to this, but it does not have all the necessary levers, since several of these areas fall under provincial and territorial jurisdiction.
Immediately thereafter, the wording proposed in the bill sets out duties. In this case, the federal government has full control of the levers and can compel the implementation of positive measures.
Mr. Godin's amendment proposes to turn a commitment into a duty in a sphere where the federal government does not control all the levers.
There would be a duty here for the federal government to carry out an enumeration. I will come back to the difference between an enumeration and an estimate later. In any case, in order to fulfil what would now be a duty, we would have to acquire the necessary tools. Otherwise, we would not be able to carry out this duty. For the federal government to do this properly, it would need other tools that fall under provincial and territorial jurisdiction.
The purpose of the subamendment is to deal with the fact that the federal government does not have all the necessary levers. According to the wording proposed by the subamendment, the federal government would periodically make an estimate using the necessary tools.
There is therefore a difference between a duty and a commitment. If we do not have all the necessary levers at our disposal, we are talking about a commitment. If we want to transform the commitment into a duty, we must recognize that certain tools are missing to fulfil this duty, and we must name them. This is what the subamendment aims to do.
I will now explain the difference between an enumeration and an estimate.
If we are talking about an estimate, then we are talking about the census, which takes place every five years. It is an estimate because, as I explained, the number will continue to increase in 2023, and then again in 2024, and so on until the next census. It is an estimate, because the numbers are not fixed in time and can increase.