Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Commissioner, I am delighted to meet you. Although I am new to this table, it is not new for me to participate in the enhancement and development of communities, especially francophone minority communities in Canada. So I am really happy to be abl

Official Languages committee  You say that the government should undertake a “real modernization”. Do you have any recommendations on that? We know that a number of exercises are underway. Even our committee will proceed to an examination and will study how the act will be modernized. Do you have any recomm

Official Languages committee  Great, thank you. I will come back to the report you submitted—your first annual report. Ms. Saikaley, thank you for your work during the transition, as we know that this report is the product of a joint effort.

Official Languages committee  The report focuses specifically on immigration. That brings us to the issue of language tests for economic immigrants. We know that tests are more expensive for francophones than for anglophones. Based on your recommendations, how should the government deal with this situation?

Official Languages committee  Do you think the new action plan for official languages is on the right track regarding development in immigration?

Official Languages committee  Thank you.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm from the National Capital Region, Commissioner, and I represent the riding of Ottawa—Vanier. I paid very close attention to the talks between the Ontario government and the City of Ottawa on the issue of making the national capital officially

Official Languages committee  Wonderful, thank you. I wanted to hear your take on the issue. I imagine that, over the next year, you might look into strengthening the role of a bilingual national capital, not just in the preamble, but also in other parts of the federal act. I would look forward to hearing any

Official Languages committee  Thank you. I'm done, Mr. Chair.

Official Languages committee  I will be brief. Mr. Bastarache, thank you very much for being here today. This is our first meeting with you and we are pleased to be able to call on your expertise. Over the past 50 years, a lot of work has been done, and a number of things were accomplished. Today, we are m

Official Languages committee  Thank you for being here today, Madam Minister. As you know full well, I have been an activist for 30 years. Currently, my role is member of Parliament for the constituency of Ottawa—Vanier, which allows me to work with the government and to have a seat at this table. A few wee

Official Languages committee  That is excellent. That was in line with the action plan. Let us move to the modernization of the act now. I have already had conversations with Ottawa people who would like the soon-to-be-bilingual status of the city to be better reflected in the act. Do you have any comments?

Official Languages committee  The other topic I want to discuss is the “by, for and with” you mentioned. I particularly appreciate the “with” because we often just hear “by” and “for”. The “with” is really important; we see in the action plan that priority has really been given to civil society and that commu

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Samson. My question is about the new Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future. I know that, during the consultations, the communities submitted to you the idea of seeing the machinery of government through the lens of official languag

Official Languages committee  I'm trying to understand the immigration initiative. This initiative is not necessarily new, but it is critical for communities. To achieve the targets that have been set, how will you support the Department of Citizenship and Immigration on this issue, while playing your own ro