Science and Research committee  In recent years, we've seen the opposite occurring—the granting councils are moving away from positive measures. In the early 2010s, a CIHR program for researchers in francophone minority communities was cancelled. It took about a decade before any semblance of an equivalent measure was established within CIHRs.

Science and Research committee  Without taking quotas into consideration, I would point out that a number of measures have made it possible to come up with programs focused specifically on research in French in francophone minority communities. Researchers had been able to obtain funds to work on specific research topics.

Science and Research committee  Ms. Pilote was putting you on the right track. It's absolutely essential to work with the granting councils. There is indeed the matter of funding, but more needs to be done about the equitable assessment of grant applications submitted to the councils. Over the past few months, we've been working with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the CIHR, to design training modules on unconscious bias in the assessment of grant applications.

Science and Research committee  I'd like to mention two points in connection with that. The problem isn't particularly the translation from French to English. It's rather that when researchers decide to work in English in order to publish findings in major scholarly journals, they choose to work on more universal research topics of interest to a broader public, rather than on more specific research areas that might resonate more specifically in certain communities.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. I'll be brief. I would say that Canada doesn't have to lag behind other countries. Every country whose national language is not English is looking for ways of keeping research alive in their national language. As our colleagues in the previous group of witnesses were saying, when research is carried out in English with a view to universality, the specific contexts covered by research in the national language are lost.

Science and Research committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank the committee for inviting us in connection with such an important study for Canada's francophone post-secondary sector. I am here today representing the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne, which is made up of the 22 francophone or bilingual post-secondary institutions in francophone minority communities.

Official Languages committee  Yes, we definitely think that the federal government could do that. It is already doing it in the field of research, moreover, through the granting agencies. Money is given directly to researchers in our institutions to conduct important research projects that produce convincing data that can be used by the communities, the researchers and governments.

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely. That's why we say that for things like the current envelope for postsecondary education, which could become permanent, the right mechanism needs to be found to allow provinces to sit at the table, without preventing the federal government from directly supporting our institutions so that they could fulfil their important mission of fostering the growth and development of francophone institutions in Canada, a commitment made by the federal government itself.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your question, Ms. Normand. The federal government sets pubic policy objectives, and we believe that our postsecondary institutions will be allies in achieving these objectives. With this measure, the federal government could intervene directly with our institutions to support the programs, activities and services they provide.

Official Languages committee  We're here to defend the positions we put forward in our brief. The Commissioner can defend the positions he seeks to strengthen his role. We believe the Commissioner is a key player who must have the means and resources to ensure that federal institutions comply with the Official Languages Act.

Official Languages committee  I don't have a specific opinion about the timing. I think we need to allow the stakeholders and the government to establish the regulations. But this needs to be done soon. The timeline would avoid the mistake that was made in 1988, meaning promising regulations that were never introduced and are still not there 35 years later.

Official Languages committee  We believe that the political will is there for regulations, but we would feel reassured if a deadline could be set so that all official languages stakeholders would have a framework from which they could work to devise, deploy and evaluate positive steps.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  We're in touch with the major granting councils to ensure that they provide adequate funding for French-language research and research on francophone communities and that the condition that research be conducted in French across the country is adequately met. So we're in touch with them, and that's why we hope the commitment to support scientific research will be clearer in the bill to ensure that the granting councils, which fall under the umbrella of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, are more directly called upon to take action and establish new positive measures to improve the situation of French-language research.

Official Languages committee  We looked at some figures, particularly with the Institutes of Health Research, to get a clearer picture of what's being invested in French-language research. Apart from that, what we've managed to document, particularly through the summit on French-language post-secondary education and the Association francophone pour le savoir, or ACFAS, as part of a major research project that has been conducted in recent years, is that there are systemic barriers to conducting research in French in Canada.