Yes, the Bloc Quebecois just recently realized that; for twenty years now, for a long time, we have been asking separatists to pay attention to Canadian francophones outside Quebec.
However, as we all know, the reply of the Quebec government was that, last year, it closed its office in Edmonton; it just abandoned that francophone community in Western Canada. I find that very unfortunate.
But they still quote data so I will take this opportunity to quote some data of my own which I find very interesting. They mentioned today the percentage of Canadians who can speak French.
Over the last ten years, that percentage has increased. I am speaking here about Canadians outside Quebec, excluding Quebec. The proportion has gone from 9.4 per cent to 10.5 per cent in ten years.
This is very interesting. We heard about immersion classes and I would like to hear what the Bloc Quebecois has to say on these facts I am making public here today. As concerns the proportion of Canadians who can speak French, we can see for example that, in my age group, 25 to 34, 8.2 per cent of the people can speak French. However, the most interesting data are those pertaining to the next generation, young people 15 to 19; in that age group, 16.7 per cent can speak both official languages and particularly French in this case. That is, between these two age groups, the percentage of young Canadians who speak French has actually doubled.
Another very interesting fact, and that is the one I prefer, of course, with the mass arrival of new Canadians who came to enrich the country, we find, as told you, in the population newly arrived in Canada, that 22.8 per cent of young people aged between 15 and 19 also speak French.
So, compared to those in my generation, the number of people who are able to speak French has almost tripled. I find that is very interesting and that we must still encourage the government to promote bilingualism and, of course, ensure the prominence of French in Quebec, but also ensure that French is more widespread throughout the country.
I would really like to hear the Bloc Quebecois has to say about the data I have just given.