Mr. Speaker, I think once again we have to remember the roots of this program, why it was originally established in 1978. It was to clarify certain constitutional provisions related to equality and language rights, language rights as set out in statutes, language and equality rights as set in section 15 of the charter, and in other areas of law.
That is why the program was originally established. It came at a time when we had the advent of the 1969 Official Languages Act, we had the 1977 Quebec Charte de la langue française and the 1982 charter, and so there was a need to establish a substantial basis of case law to determine rights.
Three decades later we have that substantial base in case law and the need for the program is no longer there. Furthermore, the Department of Justice could pursue cases on a case by case basis as needed, so there are more effective ways to spend money to affect rights and to affect case law.