Official Languages committee  Exactly.

Official Languages committee  There aren't any regulations on that, that is to say on Part VII. The people working toward that in the regions are very poorly equipped. As we said, they often live in remote regions and don't have the necessary tools to implement those changes. Initiatives related to Part VII have been taken, but they have been very few and very sporadic.

Official Languages committee  I'm going to start with the point concerning the Office of the Commissioner. We're talking about a progressive role. We don't want to make a court case of everything. We have a commissioner, and when he decides that there has been a breach of obligations, we want him to impose corrective measures and for there to be penalties if they are not complied with.

Official Languages committee  According to the last report of the Commissioner of Official Languages, bilingual service is not actively offered in 75% of offices. The bilingual greeting, “Hello, bonjour,” which costs nothing and is easy to use, is not offered. In 25% of cases, no French-language service is offered in designated bilingual offices.

Official Languages committee  The commissioner does it regularly. Before it became the agency, the Treasury Board did it as well. Some institutions do it too. However, the reports are that the institutions aren't disclosed or reported. The commissioner's reports aren't done on a government-wide scale; by that I mean that there is a turnover in audits that are done in certain departments.

Official Languages committee  Positions are designated for a reason. The conditional designation is being increasingly withdrawn. It is no longer possible to be bilingual or not to be bilingual; bilingualism is imperative.

Official Languages committee  Mr. Rodriguez, I know some unilingual anglophones and francophones who are real official languages champions. Those people, who headed up departments and Crown corporations, made it so that the official languages were taken seriously and applied to their entire department or Crown corporation.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, first I want to thank you for agreeing to hear us this afternoon. I am accompanied by Suzanne Bossé, Director General of the FCFA. One year ago now, we at the FCFA began a major effort to reflect on and analyze the record of the four decades of the Official Languages Act, and we are very proud to be submitting the results of that process to you.

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely. Other studies had been tabled on this issue by various organizations, the provincial and territorial critics. They dealt with working conditions, but they also contained information on interests and on the cumbersome administration, that is to say the cost of managing the agreement.

Official Languages committee  That's wonderful.

Official Languages committee  Allow me to give you an answer, because I went through that assessment exercise in Saskatchewan, when I was president. As soon as the community association makes its recommendations—usually in February—it is sent to the Department of Canadian Heritage, and that is where we lose track of it.

Official Languages committee  Usually the organizations will get funding from different sources. Heritage Canada is our main source of financing; however, we have contributions as well from the provincial government. Some of them are municipal. In the case of the Congrès mondial acadien, which was absolutely wonderful—I was there for it as well—there was funding at very different levels for different organizations.

Official Languages committee  Right now, we have employees in different areas. We have a community manager in an area who might be paid $18,000 with no benefits, and who has been there for years. That happens quite a bit in our community. We need funding not to give humongous raises. We consider ourselves to be public servants for the francophone community and to be offering services that the government is legally obligated to provide.

Official Languages committee  I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you.

Official Languages committee  Yes. If you're talking about the projects that are funded by.... Well, more people are participating in our activities, which doesn't mean that the funding is getting bigger; it just means that we're getting more outreach.