Mr. Speaker, I did inform the Conservative Party yesterday that I would be speaking about the Accent program. I told his colleague from Saint Boniface who spoke to the member for Peterborough. There is no reason to not be ready. They need only do their homework.
The Accent program fostered the mobility of students throughout Quebec and Canada. Its objective was to help French-language schools in minority settings and French immersion schools to improve their students' knowledge of French. The Accent program combined language and culture in French learning. According to André Dulude, of the Association of Universities and Colleges, who appeared before the Standing Committee on Official Languages on March 26:
—bilingual competence is most effectively developed at the elementary and secondary levels and... universities should encourage prospective students to have acquired a working knowledge of their other official language;
That was the aim of the Accent program. The Reform Conservatives eliminated the Accent program. It is deplorable. Shame on them.