Mr. Speaker, our country was built by two founding peoples, one francophone and one anglophone, along with the first nations.
The Official Languages Act, which was adopted in 1969, declares English and French to be Canada's two official languages. French has been on the decline in Quebec and in francophone communities across Canada. The last report from the Commissioner of Official Languages was clear. We need to take urgent action to stop the decline of French in our country.
A Conservative government would take action within its first 100 days, modernizing the Official Languages Act to make it stronger, creating an administrative tribunal to handle complaints, allocating a budget for francophone universities in minority communities and centralizing enforcement powers at the Treasury Board to protect public servants. As the leader of the official opposition has said so well, we must act now to protect the French language across Canada.
How can Quebeckers and francophones have faith in this Liberal government, which has done nothing to protect the French language over the past five years?