Official Languages committee  We didn't go into detail, because for one thing we don't think we have all the solutions, and we don't think we should be providing any solution without consulting the key stakeholders in this. The other thing is we don't have either the resources--the financial and the human resources--or the expertise to dig out everything that needs to be done, nor do we think we should be doing it by ourselves.

Official Languages committee  The departments and Crown corporations, that is the institutions subject to the act, must carry out an exercise every 10 years. Let's take, for example, the Mississauga office of Canada Post, which serves a given region. Based on the census, it is determined whether 5% of the community is francophone or not.

Official Languages committee  I would like to add something. I'm looking at your committee. You are committed to linguistic duality and you prepare reports. We've seen the impact that you can have; we see it and we thank you for the rigour you show. You are the only committee that has demanded compliance with the act.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely.

Official Languages committee  It's due to the regulations, the regulations made under the act. The 5% statistic, which is complex, does not take a number of factors into account. It is ultimately static, whereas the communities evolve. For those reasons, we believe the focus should be not just on the act, but on all the regulations related to the manner in which the act is implemented, and we should see together how to go about making it respond to the situation.

Official Languages committee  At the provincial and territorial level, the FCFA's member organizations work with their respective departments. I must admit to you that they are very good and do an enormous amount of work on promotion. You need only think of the “Bonjour Saskatchewan” campaign promoting francophone culture and immersion, as you are fully doing it.

Official Languages committee  You just said it. The Commissioner's role is to prepare reports, to investigate, and so on. Once he has investigated and found that Marie-France Kenny, for example, has breached the act and obligations under the Official Languages Act, the commissioner has to tell me what I'm going to do.

Official Languages committee  He can't do it right now, and that's why we're talking about enhanced powers.

Official Languages committee  Thank you.

Official Languages committee  We didn't disregard the testimony. I told you earlier that I worked for the federal government in Saskatchewan. I agree with you that it's hard to recruit bilingual people, but we managed to do so in Saskatchewan. If we can do it in Saskatchewan, there's no reason why it can't be done in Ottawa, Montreal or other designated bilingual regions.

Official Languages committee  I'd like to clarify one point. Earlier I talked about a portion of my salary. However, I was working for a federal Crown corporation at the time and I was managing the national official languages program. So I was on the other side of the fence. Back home in Saskatchewan, the official languages were working.

Official Languages committee  We're requesting full compliance with the act. I want that to be clear. This has been going on for 40 years. We're accusing no government, but rather all of government. I want that to be clear because no government has completely complied with the act. Ms. Boucher, you gave me some figures; you mentioned an increase from 7% to 32% 40 years later.

Official Languages committee  Aren't there reasons for us francophones to be indignant about the fact that, 40 years later, our rights are not respected to the same degree? Are we asking that the act be complied with 100%? Yes. We would do so in an ideal world.

Official Languages committee  I would say to you that there will still be complaints, but that should be an exception, not the norm. Over the past 40 years, we have managed to accept that receiving 10,000 or 15,000 complaints is the norm. Let's just take the case of Air Canada, among others. There are a host of other examples.

Official Languages committee  We were below zero 40 years ago.