Mr. Speaker, we take our responsibility to respect and promote Canada's official languages very seriously. Our government is firmly committed to official languages, as demonstrated by our roadmap, which includes a record $1.1 billion in funding.
In addition, our contribution agreements with organizations that receive funding include provisions guaranteeing a number of things: communications with the public will be carried out in both official languages; services will actively be offered in both official languages; members of both official language communities will be encouraged to participate in the organization's activities.
The Government of Canada supports the festival, and the organizers are aware of our linguistic requirements.
Canadian Tulip Festival organizers recently clarified their position on services in Canada's two official languages. They explained that the reason behind having two separate festival launches, one for the English media and another for the French media, was to emphasize programming highlights for both anglophone and francophone audiences.
Festival officials said that they regretted any misunderstanding arising from this decision to communicate as well as possible with both French and English media. I think that, over the years, the Canadian Tulip Festival has proven that it respects both official languages, and naturally, we will keep encouraging the organizers to continue doing so.
We have mentioned the Canadian Tulip Festival, but I know my colleague also mentioned many things about the Olympics and Paralympics. I want to touch on a couple of things that our government is doing with regard to that. It has to be clear that we are engaged in promoting both officials languages at this event. It is going to be a fantastic opportunity for both our Francophone and Anglophone citizens to see the Olympics and Paralympics.
To point out some of the things that have been done, our government is actively participating in the funding of Cultural Olympiad. The whole Canadian Francophonie will be represented with all her diversity. This is a praise-worthy initiative that will foster the vitality of Francophones in both majority and minority communities. This will develop the production network among both language groups and promote exchanges between them.
Canadian Heritage and VANOC are working with the Canada Council for the Arts and equivalent provincial organizations to allow groups that were selected in 2009 and 2010 to use their trips to Vancouver to put on a series of shows in British Columbia and other provinces to maximize the benefits of their participation in the Cultural Olympiad.
I want to stress one more time that we believe in ensuring that all citizens of Canada have the opportunities to really take advantage of both the English and French languages. We are committed to that. We will continue to support these initiatives. We will do our very best to ensure that our partners also follow our lead as a role model.
I recommend that my colleague opposite engage in celebrating the successes, while also being mindful of places where we need to improve. For once, I would like to hear a celebration of the fact that Canada is one of the most wonderful places to live in this world and that we do celebrate the French and English languages alike.