Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his question. It is a very good question. It is a very important question.
The Reform Party recognizes and realizes that French is a fact in this country. So is English. French is the minority language because fewer people speak French.
We are not against supporting bilingualism. When I was making the point about compulsory enforcement and about not spending a lot of money to encourage people to learn a language, I was trying to show that the separatists use an extreme argument. They go overboard in trying to retain their argument. There needs to be a compromise between the two.
It against that point that I was stating the fact that if someone did not speak the language for a number of years, they could still speak that language. The culture of a province and a region is important. There are many cultures across this country.
The member asked how we would encourage or protect French minority language rights outside Quebec. First, all provinces have jurisdiction over language and culture. It should be the same for Quebec as it is for Alberta and for every other province. Within that right, the provinces can encourage the people to speak the language of its choice and to insist on education first in the language of that choice.
The way to ensure that French is protected in Alberta, for instance, is to recognize where the pockets, the pools, the significant numbers and sufficient demand exist to ensure that those people, through legislation, get the services they require. That is protected by law. It is enforced by law.
However, to encourage more Albertans, more Edmontonians, Calgarians, people from Red Deer, from Lethbridge, from wherever they are to speak French, one has to sell and promote the advantages of a second language. It has to be shown what are the advantages for Albertans to learn French. A lot of good contracts from Europe in the technological field are going to Quebecers and Quebecers only because they speak French and supply the drawings and the technical information in French.
If Calgarians and Edmontonians or Albertans in general were to take the time to become proficient in that second language it would improve their opportunities to market themselves. It would improve their ability to make deals in the global economy. The world is shrinking. It will become a Europe. Therefore, the protection of a second language, be it English in Quebec or French in Ontario, will become more prevalent. The way to do it is not to force people to do it but to encourage, to promote, to show the advantages of it.