Official Languages committee  I think they heard me.

Official Languages committee  They learn it.

Official Languages committee  I'm telling you: I spent 12 years at the Privy Council. My minister can confirm that for you. We spoke in French with the deputy ministers.

Official Languages committee  On a daily basis. I didn't speak English or Spanish to those deputy ministers, I spoke to them in French. I'm not talking about the assistant deputy ministers, the directors general or all public servants, but about a group of 49 deputy ministers. They aren't stupid; they spend time learning French.

Official Languages committee  They aren't required to be bilingual, but they have enough common sense to become it.

Official Languages committee  Of the School of Public Service.

Official Languages committee  I told you that we had $150 million that was not research funding. Of that $150 million, there is funding for the universities, but intended for official languages. It's a very small amount, I agree with you. More money is needed, but there are economic circumstances that I accept as a citizen and that I accept as Vice-President of the Association of Universities and Colleges.

Official Languages committee  In the $150 million budget.

Official Languages committee  No, I didn't say there wasn't any money. Mr. Rainville is taking out his list of all the programs. There are programs, federal programs. There is money, but I'm telling you there definitely isn't enough. However, as an association, we establish a strategy, we prepare a list of priorities and we try not to show up with 29 priorities.

Official Languages committee  No, it's based on what our presidents want. We have 94 presidents. We sit down with the presidents, we say to ourselves that the budget cycle is starting and we set our priorities.

Official Languages committee  We also speak on behalf of Quebec universities.

Official Languages committee  I've just left the public service after 35 years of service. So I've seen bilingualism evolve in that environment. In the past 10 years, I've seen perfectly bilingual anglophones, like your colleague Ms. Glover, emerge from immersion programs. They hadn't necessarily studied at francophone or bilingual universities, but their French was more than acceptable, nearly perfect, as a result of those immersion programs.

Official Languages committee  I must correct you. I worked for Mr. Chong at the Privy Council. I spent 12 years at the Privy Council as a public servant, not in politics. As part of those duties, you only deal with the 49 deputy ministers. When I was told, and I'm a francophone, that I couldn't address the 49 deputy ministers in French, I couldn't agree.

Official Languages committee  That was the first point in my statement. I entirely agree with you. The approach should start with the primary and secondary levels. There's no doubt about that. At university, it's not too late, but it's already late. We should devote more resources and effort to the primary and secondary levels.

Official Languages committee  An increase in the postsecondary education transfer was not one of our demands for the 2009 budget. I already said that we had obtained the $2 billion we requested for infrastructure. We didn't want to be too greedy. We limited ourselves to one priority and we got it. Mr. Nadeau, that could be part of our platform of submissions for the 2010 budget.