This has always been a major problem for us. We would like Canada to recognize communities for what they are in terms of identity. Over the years, the community in Manitoba has developed significantly with newcomers, francophiles, if we can use that term, people who really have an identity and a sense of belonging to the community.
A few years ago, we even took the federal government to court over a number of Official Languages Act regulations. The purpose was specifically to clarify this issue and enlarge the pool of francophones and the definition of “francophone”. We even succeeded in introducing a regulation that will greatly help to improve the provision of services in French and expand the concept of francophone identity.
The people who decide to settle in our province come from just about everywhere around the world. We have had presidents from Africa, who were not acknowledged as members of our community in a way that I would call legal. For us, that's unacceptable.
We went to battle to change the definition of francophone identity in censuses and to make improvements to the delivery of services in our francophone communities throughout Manitoba.
I hope that our efforts have been positive and that all these initiatives will be reflected in the new version of the Official Languages Act, a modernized version.
My hope is that we will have moved this dialogue forward.