Official Languages committee  Providing services to the public is one of the major factors. When people ask for a service, it often happens that it is not provided in the language of their choice. Every time they want to obtain a service in their own language, we are actually asking them to commit a political act.

Official Languages committee  First, the summit should bring together all those with a major role to play in promoting linguistic duality. However, given the Canadian reality, some steps would perhaps need to be taken so that all the players can participate. That idea has already been floated.

Official Languages committee  There are various approaches. The Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie could be an interesting forum. There is also the Council of Ministers of Education Canada, because it deals with education and with official languages in schools, and it negotiates the OLEP. So there are various players.

Official Languages committee  Who would give a commissioner the mandate to organize a federal-provincial-territorial conference? The federal government would be responsible for organizing a meeting of that kind, if that is what you want. Some forum for doing so would have to be found.

Official Languages committee  The events of 2018, including the comments on the program Tout le monde en parle, have actually had a positive effect, in the sense that they have created solidarity between francophones from one end of the country to the other. Immersion is an interesting phenomenon. In the last four years, registrations have increased by 20%.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  During our consultations on modernizing the act, we had a lot of discussions about that. A point that often comes up is to include language clauses in the federal-provincial agreements. Spending power belongs to the federal government. If it decides to invest in communities, it therefore has the right to demand accountability, and particularly by including language clauses in the agreements under which the federal government transfers funds to the provinces for activities that affect linguistic minorities.

Official Languages committee  Some agreements contain such clauses, yes, but, in my opinion, they are very ambiguous and very loose. However, I feel that the next agreements, such as those made under the OLEP, the Official Languages in Education Program, will have much clearer clauses defining the activities in which the money must be invested.

Official Languages committee  The question we have to ask ourselves about that 20% is whether they can be attributed to systemic failures. If that is the case, is there a systemic approach that would enable us to find a solution? Let me give you an example of the complaints we receive very frequently. It is about job classifications in the public service.

Official Languages committee  As I mentioned earlier, the whole question of linguistic duality is not really understood by many Canadians. I think that is reflected by some of the actions taken by provincial and territorial governments. We've come a long way over the last 50 years, but also, I think, we've reached a point at which we have forgotten what this duality is all about.

Official Languages committee  It does not happen often. In this case, and in a few others that happened in the last year, it's largely because of Justice Gascon's decision in the case involving the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique.

Official Languages committee  That decision means that we have to reevaluate some reports about Part VII and change the rules of interpretation. The report you mentioned is a preliminary one.

Official Languages committee  I can tell you what we are doing in terms of the majority, for example, given the commissioner's very limited means. We make presentations in schools, we meet with groups. For example, with the consultations that Ms. Joly is currently leading, the people attending are almost solely members of francophone communities, outside Québec in particular.

Official Languages committee  We made that request.

Official Languages committee  Yes.