Mr. Speaker, last week, the Minister of Canadian Heritage announced that an additional $70 million a year would be put into official languages support programs.
These $70 million that will be reinvested in this area will allow us to reinforce our support to official languages communities as well as our support to the provinces and territories for the teaching of official languages and for the provision of services in the minority language.
The announcement was well received by the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, which believes that the minister kept her promise to increase direct support to communities, and by a number of associations, which are pleased to see that funding for official languages support programs is being restored.
I would also like to mention that the member for Dauphin—Swan River took a stand in favour of Canada's linguistic duality before the Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages by congratulating the government on its decision to invest in education. I applaud him for supporting our official languages.