Mr. Speaker, I consider the minister a friend and colleague.
New Democrats are pleased that we are finally getting to this bill. We are disappointed that it took so long. It was first introduced in the last Parliament; days later, an election was called. Months after we reconvened, it finally came back before us. Despite the fact that minority-language communities have been heard for a long time about these issues and we knew what the issues were, they have been kept waiting.
Could the minister comment on why it took so long to respond to what the minority-language communities were asking for?