Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I sincerely thank you for the opportunity to speak to you on behalf of the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, the CSFCB. Your committee is all too familiar with the shortcoming

Official Languages committee  I would add that there may be a lack of understanding about how society is changing. Mr. Chartrand and I both mentioned that one category of rights holders is decreasing as other categories increase. As Ms. Risbud said, the situation is becoming critical, so enumerating all right

Official Languages committee  We teach French as a first language in our francophone school boards. We don't teach a second language.

Official Languages committee  It's important, of course, Mr. Arseneault. The case is before the Supreme Court. Even if the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique and the Fédération des parents francophones de Colombie-Britannique win their case before the Supreme Court, we still need to be ab

Official Languages committee  Yes, they did. The education minister in our province is quite aware of the fact that we lack the ability to enumerate rights holders. In the brief submitted by the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, at tab 5 or 6, you'll find the letter sent by our ministe

Official Languages committee  That's in the brief submitted by the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique. It has 43 schools, but that number doesn't include immersion schools, which are managed by anglophone school boards.

Official Languages committee  I can tell you that, in British Columbia—Ms. Morand said this earlier about the entire country—French-language school boards are on the rise. We need this data to prove we are growing and we can provide programming. I cited the Pemberton school example earlier. The judge held th

Official Languages committee  According to the judge, the number of places should have been 55, but there were already 59 students by that time.

Official Languages committee  No.

Official Languages committee  In our legal case, the judge decided on the figure of 55 students in Pemberton, but she established figures—which I would call random—in other communities based on paragraph 23(1)(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, without the data. There's no number in the chart

Official Languages committee  If the necessary questions are not on the short form, we'll still be in court 10 years from now. We will still be fighting to get the schools we are entitled to. The money will not have been allocated and we will not have provided the services to the students.

Official Languages committee  Right.

Official Languages committee  It would allow us to be in a better position to build new schools. We just opened a new school two years ago, and the ministry used the formula that is used for anglophones, the majority of children. It did not take into account the growth we're experiencing in the francophone sy

Official Languages committee  We have sent a number of letters on this issue.

Official Languages committee  I am thinking specifically of my children, who went to French school. Today, when they are asked what their mother tongue is, they say they have two. My children speak English just as well as French. So how are they supposed to answer that when they fill out the form?