Official Languages committee  Yes. I fully endorse those comments. By way of preamble, I would like to say this. This morning, we are talking. I wouldn't say we are complaining, but we seem to be raising issues. But the fact is the federal government has carried out some important work in recent years. I woul

Official Languages committee  As you say, we often play the role of missionaries; there is no doubt about that. That is part of the job, and when you are Franco-Ontarians living in a minority situation, you simply accept that. It must be the same thing in the East. It's important to understand how the federa

Official Languages committee  Missionaries.

Official Languages committee  I would just like to echo your comments. One of my concerns is the scrapping of a budget allocation of $39 million towards the Social Economy Enterprise Development Program, a cut that will have very serious repercussions. This fund made it possible to develop certain initiatives

Official Languages committee  No, they are not.

Official Languages committee  Well, I think it could be fairly simple. We basically know what the mandate is in terms of protecting official languages. Whatever the department, whether it's Canadian Heritage, Human Resources Development Canada, Service Canada or another organization, it is important that when

Official Languages committee  Absolutely, and that is the rationale for the linguistic accommodation policy that has just been launched in Ontario. I'd like to tell you a little story. With 55% of exogamous families in Ontario, only 14% of whom speak French at home. The rather strange burden of having to try

Official Languages committee  We need a land of welcome, and everything has to be built. That is one of the reasons for the plea I made earlier about the $900 million that is pending. We have to convince immigrants who settle in Ontario to go up north, where job opportunities are available. Approximately 64%

Official Languages committee  You are absolutely right, and I feel we can only improve the old system. I've lived with it, or worse. Here we're talking about official languages, but imagine when those people came to the agency and the person greeting them could not speak French. Not only was I losing them or

Official Languages committee  We should be doubling the subsidy for the Explore Canada program. It invites young people from across the province to go and study in a different institution, in a different language. It is absolutely critical to support that program. It is funded by the Department of Canadian He

Official Languages committee  It's important to maintain that program.

Official Languages committee  And it would also directly affect Francophones you're serving in the region. Yes.

Official Languages committee  I believe the situation may get even worse because once we fall back into that vicious cycle — I see too many families in that predicament in Northern Ontario — particularly if the economic situation is bad, the generation that follows will be facing even more of a challenge. We

Official Languages committee  I am optimistic. I hope that with the new agreement, the provincial government will be able to better control the situation and draw lessons from what has occurred elsewhere in the country. That way, we may become more effective.

Official Languages committee  Yes, they're absolutely essential, because they broaden people's horizons. I did it, I was there, I learned things, sometimes more than I'd learned at school.