Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you're doing well.
My name is Étienne‑Alexis Boucher. I am chief executive officer and co-founder of Droits collectifs Québec. We are an independent community action organization recognized by the Secrétariat à l'action communautaire autonome et aux initiatives sociales, or SACAIS, as a collective advocacy organization.
The main portion of our remarks will be delivered by Mr. Côté.
I just want to say this. In a few words, much ado about nothing. I remind you that we worked on reforming the Official Languages Act for more than a few years. In the case of the regulations currently under consideration, it took more than two years for the Government of Canada to produce a six-page document that unfortunately doesn't allow the Official Languages Act to comply with international law when it comes to determining which language group is considered a minority or a majority.
These regulations also do not respond to the science of protecting minorities, whereas when a state wants to protect a minority language, it invests in a region where that language is useful. I can tell you that when Switzerland is looking to protect the Italian language, it doesn't invest in German-speaking or francophone cantons. It invests in Italian-speaking cantons.
Finally, unfortunately, these regulations do not allow the government to respect the intent of the legislator, who recognized that French is in decline across Canada and that the federal government must therefore support it across Canada, including in Quebec.
Unfortunately, there were no new positive measures in the action plan for official languages 2018‑23 to support French in Quebec as well.
I will now yield to Mr. Côté.