Official Languages committee  Successive governments have told us about the importance of linguistic duality since the Official Languages Act was implemented. I am going to be very frank with you, as I usually am, by the way. I think it is time to walk the walk. We have to do what we need to do as a society to ensure that people across the country acknowledge linguistic duality.

Official Languages committee  Precisely, and Ms. DiCaire, who is also Franco-Ontarian, and whom you certainly know.

Official Languages committee  I think there is an opportunity for cultural exchanges in our communities. We have strong, vibrant communities, but we do not very often see immersion teachers taking part in activities. And yet activities take place. Earlier we were asked about what the federal government could do in that regard.

Official Languages committee  Véronic DiCaire, exactly. So they do not necessarily know about our artists. We absolutely have to have exchanges with Quebec, but also exchanges in our communities to promote sharing. I have to tell you that the mandate of our communities is to respond to all these beautiful people, although we do not necessarily have all the resources to reach all those people.

Official Languages committee  He answered the question that was posed. We work for the same organization.

Official Languages committee  There are also a lot of opportunities to learn English in the schools for newcomers who do not speak French. They are not promoted enough. You say that the tendency is to send children to study in English because it is the majority language. Back home in Saskatchewan, we do not need to learn English.

Official Languages committee  Yes, I have my free pass.

Official Languages committee  Like many of our French-language schools, our immersion schools do not have the necessary infrastructure to deal with the issue of students dropping out. Let us suppose that a student wants to become an electrician. Not all French-language schools or immersion schools offer secondary level courses that would enable that student to pursue studies in that field.

Official Languages committee  Two things would be very important. There is the entire accountability issue that I discussed and that I would add here. We often receive documents from the Fraser Institute on the cost of linguistic duality and bilingualism. It would be a good idea for the government to prepare a report on the added value and economic value of having a bilingual country and to promote it extensively to the provinces.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for the question. There has been little response to the $120 million that Citizenship and Immigration Canada proposes to invest. This is obviously a question that we have raised, but we have not yet received a response. I will be meeting Minister Kenney next week, and this issue is definitely among the priority topics we would like to address with him.

Official Languages committee  Look, I am not an expert on the subject. However, if you say you need a scholarship to study in immersion, in French as a first language or in English, we are no longer talking about free schools or about fair access for all Canadians, anglophone or francophone. We have an education system that is free of charge for all Canadians up to the secondary level.

Official Languages committee  I think it is obvious. The federal government transfers major funding to the provinces and territories for immersion, French-language education and first-language education. We want to ensure that the money transferred for immersion goes to immersion and that the money transferred for French-language education goes to French-language education.

Official Languages committee  We have heard that here. I think it was the Commissioner of Official Languages who put a question to a minister of education. I do not know which one it was. He asked him what he did when he received his cheque for French-language education. The minister answered that he allocated it in accordance with his priorities.

Official Languages committee  What I am saying is that, first, the provinces must be accountable. That is currently not required. People tend to say this is a provincial jurisdiction. I agree, except that the money is transferred from the federal government. It is my money. If you are asking for my opinion, I would say that, if you give me that share of my taxes, I will invest it in the school system I want.

Official Languages committee  I completely agree with you. With regard to education, if we ask that funding be transferred to French-language education, we have to ask the province or territory to be accountable. We saw this in the case of Yukon. The money was to be invested in French-language education, but it wound up in immersion.