Mr. Speaker, 40 years after the Laurendeau-Dunton report, a CROP poll has found that 81% of Canadians want Canada to remain a bilingual country. Yet there is very little access to provincial services in the minority language.
Under the Dion action plan, the Liberal government earmarked $786.3 million over five years for official languages. The Liberal opposition is asking the Conservative government to maintain that Liberal commitment and take action to correct the huge disparities faced by linguistic minorities in Canada.
Canada cannot be a bilingual country on paper only. Canadians are clearly highly motivated to learn the other official language.
I invite the federal, provincial and territorial governments to work together to find ways of expanding second language instruction from early childhood on.