Thank you.
My brain's switching to English for this one. It's not because you asked it in English; it's just jumped that way.
Although the universities are under provincial control, the important funding for research—at least outside of Quebec, because Quebec has the Fonds de recherche du Québec that I'm so envious of—is through the funding agencies, which are under federal control. If there's a way of coupling that with something in the Official Languages Act and perhaps in the languages and education funding that is shared between the provinces and the federal government—which for a long time only addressed elementary and secondary education, but have increasingly added the post-secondary sector—then I think we might have a strategy. Until there is an actual value proposition around research in French and research on la francophonie to guide that, I think it'll be difficult.
What you didn't hear in my last 30 seconds that I couldn't say is that there's a cautionary tale. If we don't have it at the post-secondary level, why then should children register in elementary and secondary schools in French? For me, it's not just a question about science. It's a question of the vitality of the French language communities, particularly in a minority context. The spillover effect is much greater than just publications, because people see this.
Why do I choose to study in French for post-secondary? It's because I hope to be able to apply the language. If we're not fixing that problem, then why am I doing my undergraduate in French or my high school in French? You hear kids say, “I have enough French in grade eight because I know I need to study in English to be successful in neuroscience.”
That is my answer to your question.