Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. As he noticed during my presentation, I am concerned by the general lack of consistency in this government when it comes to our public service, while its employees make such a big contribution to Canadian life, and work hard to represent their country. They also improve the outreach of federal services.
The concerns raised during second reading, which were clearly identified, still remain. General concerns have to do with the government ignoring linguistic duality. We saw this many times in many different areas. French does not receive the respect it deserves. It is widely used across the country. As the fourth largest francophone province in the country after Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick, British Columbia now has 65,000 francophones. British Columbia is fourth in the pack in terms of the strength of its francophone community.
It must be said that in British Columbia there is a lack of services in French; still, at the same time, immersion schools are overflowing in that province. In fact, the immersion schools in British Columbia are the leaders in the country when it comes to people, parents and children, participating and wanting to learn French. In British Columbia, there always are obstacles to getting into the public service. It is always a problem. British Columbia is under-represented in the public service, while we are busy, in our immersion schools, teaching more and more bilingual young children who would like to contribute to their country by providing service in both official languages.
The entire issue of linguistic duality is and always has been a concern of the NDP. I was just talking to the hon. member for Halifax. Even when she was NDP leader in Nova Scotia, she fought to ensure that the Acadian community was well represented and respected in Nova Scotia. We could also talk about other governments, for instance, New Democratic governments, which have advanced francophone rights. We could mention the members of legislatures all over the country who have advanced francophone rights.
Everywhere in Canada, the NDP message is the same, whether in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, with the hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst, Elizabeth Weir in Alberta and Léo Piquette. The governments of Saskatchewan and Manitoba have done the most to advance francophone rights. In fact, the New Democratic government in British Columbia set up the first francophone school boards. All over the country, we have the same message about linguistic duality and we always take the same care. That is a fundamental aspect of the NDP's existence and the reason why it must continue to speak on behalf of people all over the country.