Mr. Speaker, this evening, I am speaking about a very important subject that I raised during oral question period a while ago.
During the pandemic, we realized that Canadians with very specific needs were struggling to get answers in French from various departments. French also seems to have been dropped at meetings, and that is a serious problem.
We have gotten all kinds of reports showing that during the crisis, it became harder and harder for francophones to receive answers in French and for anglophones in minority situations to receive clear answers in their language.
That is a very serious problem. We informed the President of the Treasury Board and asked him for answers about this. Unfortunately, the answers I was given during oral question period were very vague.
This leads me to a hot topic in the media, namely the importance of the French language for Quebec and, in particular, the position of the Liberal Party of Canada and its members on the notion that French is declining in Quebec.
In a couple of days, we will have an opportunity to hold a very important debate on the decline of French in Montreal. Anyone who has had the opportunity to go to Montreal in recent months—perhaps a little less often in recent weeks because of the pandemic—can attest to how much rarer it is to be addressed in French in the great city of Montreal. It is important for us to recognize this.
We have just one important question for the government and that is the following: Will we get its bill to improve the Official Languages Act before Christmas, yes or no? That is what I asked in oral question period, and I hope that tonight I will finally get the final, clear answer that, yes, the Liberals will introduce their bill before the holidays.