Mr. Speaker, ever since Vancouver made its bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, promoting both our official languages has been part of our commitment in support of that bid, pursuant to the Official Languages Act.
Efforts have also been made by the federal government to ensure that French takes its rightful place not only during the games, but also before and during the torch relay. It is a $24.5 million investment by our government. Thanks to that investment, the torch relay will allow thousands of anglophone and francophone communities to participate.
The Government of Canada is committed to having these games reflect the country's linguistic duality. We have taken steps to help VANOC respect the multiparty agreement. We have also encouraged the participation and representation in the games by official language minority communities.
To guarantee that all the cultural activities surrounding the games are bilingual, we have made the multiparty agreement official language requirements part of the contribution agreements for the torch relay, celebration sites, the cultural Olympiad and the opening ceremony.
On September 15, we announced $7.7 million in additional funding for translation and interpretation, signage and the medal ceremonies.
We will sign a memorandum of understanding with Public Works and Government Services Canada in order that the Translation Bureau can provide its expert services in translation and interpretation during the games.
This funding is consistent with a number of the recommendations by the Commissioner of Official Languages. What is more, in his follow-up report, the commissioner took note of the progress made by VANOC and by Canadian Heritage.
It is important to note that official languages before, during and after the games are VANOC's responsibility. It is VANOC's responsibility to serve francophones from across the country who will be participating in these games.
We are working together with the federal institutions responsible for essential federal services. We are working with the Treasury Board Secretariat in order to support the institutions that will provide services in both official languages to visitors from Canada and from the rest of the world.
Our overall objective is to ensure the bilingual character of the games and we in the federal government are taking that responsibility seriously.