Official Languages committee  I'd like to add something to what Mr. Chartrand said. For example, École secondaire Gabriel-Dumont in Toronto has 293 spots, but 399 actual students—106 more than it should—not to mention 10 portables. Within five years, it's expected to have 526 students, another 126. That will

Official Languages committee  I'd like to add something, if I may, Mr. Beaulieu. I'm fortunate enough to wear two hats at the same time, one as director general of Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones and one as the executive director of Regroupement national des directions générales d'éd

Official Languages committee  Precisely.

Official Languages committee  They are temporary spaces, but they'll conceivably be used for—

Official Languages committee  There isn't.

Official Languages committee  In some provinces, it is on a case-by-case basis. In Nova Scotia, for example, there is a grandfather clause that allows the lost generations to register their children. In the case of a couple whose children apparently attended English school because they were not able to send

Official Languages committee  If I may complement the information, the Syrian refugees are a good example. When they landed in Canada, they had the opportunity to choose which system to send their kids through. In New Brunswick, unfortunately, which is the only officially bilingual province of this country,

Official Languages committee  Two-thirds of our school boards are in Ontario, because Ontario is the great bastion of francophones outside Quebec. So the increases are quite significant in Ontario. They are also significant in Nova Scotia because of the growing up in French program, which has made it possible

Official Languages committee  At the moment, we are very concerned. When the new cabinet was sworn in, a mandate letter was given to Minister Joly, who is responsible for the francophonie and official languages. It was clearly indicated that she had to change the census. People had hope when they saw that it

Official Languages committee  I would like to provide an answer to your first question as to whether there is evidence that parents are choosing French immersion rather than French as a first language. We don't have hard data, but we know it does happen for a number of reasons. If there's not a nearby school,

Official Languages committee  Or if it's too crowded.

Official Languages committee  Actually, it will be our 2nd vice-president, Mrs. Saumure, who will give the opening remarks.

Official Languages committee  I would qualify the answer by saying that both elements are valid. Yes, the programs need to be better targeted. As Ms. Forest mentioned, there is no substantive equality at all stages of welcoming and supporting immigrants. So there has to be a will to better target the program

Official Languages committee  Yes. I'll give you an example on the ground that I think speaks for itself: Our smallest school board is in Nunavut, and it consists of a single school. If you look at the student profile, there's an extremely large black population. Why is that? The first immigrant family from a

Official Languages committee  It's an ongoing challenge. We talked about the 73 new schools built and opened since 2016. Building new infrastructure is our school system's main priority. I must admit that our system is relatively new, since we were only able to start building our network across Canada in the