Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll be speaking first.
First of all, my sincere thanks to you and all the members of the committee for your invitation and especially for the work you are doing.
Your studies are important for Canadians in general, but particularly so for federal employees. Your research and investigations provide them with guidelines for developing policies.
My colleague, Sarah Boily, and I are delighted to have the opportunity to speak to you about the government's efforts to protect and promote the place of French in Canada.
Since the September 2020 throne speech, the government has recognized that French is in a unique situation and that we have a responsibility to protect and promote it, not just in Canada, but in Quebec as well.
In fact, several initiatives are already under way to provide the government with important levers to take concrete action to protect and promote the French language from coast to coast to coast.
The most recent “Action Plan for Official Languages - 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future” was launched after extensive consultations with communities and partners in the sector. The plan represents an investment of $2.7 billion over five years, with $500 million of new funds intended to counter the decline in the demographic weight of francophone communities across the country.
This plan has enabled the government to make investments in key sectors essential for the vitality of francophone communities in Canada, such as immigration, early childhood education, justice, health and many others. Above all, it has made it possible to better fund initiatives to promote French, such as French immersion programs; a recruitment strategy for French teachers; French second language post-secondary scholarships; support for second language learning and minority language education through federal, provincial and territorial agreements; better support for French language services in the territories; and the renewal of the collaboration agreement for the development of arts and culture in francophone minority communities.
With one year to go, we have completed all of the initiatives included in this action plan for official languages, and we are about to begin consultations for the next action plan for 2023-28.
In addition to these major investments, on April 19, 2021, the federal government announced that it was planning to invest an additional $389.9 million over three years to support official languages, starting this fiscal year, 2021‑2022.
Among other things, it proposed to allocate $180.4 million to expand bilingualism. First of all, we want to improve the French immersion and French second language programs in schools and postsecondary institutions. Second, we want to assist the provinces and territories in meeting the strong demand from students and parents for spaces in French immersion and French second language programs. Third, we want to enhance the strategy in place to recruit and retain teachers and support French language learning in early childhood.
Another $121.3 million was committed to provide high-quality minority-language postsecondary education across Canada.
Lastly, $81.8 million was allocated over two years to support the construction, renovation and expansion of the educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities.
These investments will help to provide greater protection and promotion for French across the country and will contribute to the vitality of the official language minority communities.
The department is working hard to introduce a new bill to modernize the Official Languages Act and to implement the legislative, regulatory and administrative proposals outlined in the reform document entitled “English and French: Towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada,” which was released last February.
The government has demonstrated its commitment to protecting and promoting French and will continue to do so by implementing the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
I would be pleased to take your questions.