Thank you very much for your question.
I think our report makes it quite clear that the federal government has a lot of work to do when it comes to implementing the new Official Languages Act in the area of research. The concept of substantive equality is a concept that we have adopted and turned into the lens through which we study the situation of French in the field of research. The federal government is lacking a great deal when it comes to the granting agencies, where we've seen that improvements have been made.
We also know that the federal government has departments with research responsibilities. There are research offices in departments, but there are also departments that conduct research, such as the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada, through CIHR in particular, as well as Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada. When we met with the various departments with research responsibilities and Treasury Board, we realized that they had no idea what we were talking about when we asked them what positive measures they had taken to advance research in French. They told us they were waiting for the new regulations or Treasury Board directives. However, when we met with Treasury Board, we weren't very satisfied with its answers.
You've seen the regulations that were proposed. I myself testified that the drafters of the regulations had to go back to the drawing board. We even asked the Commissioner of Official Languages to take charge of this issue. I feel like we opened a Pandora's box when we met with officials.
There is important work to be done. We have clearly seen that the task is considerable when it comes to intramural research.