Official Languages committee  I recently wrote an article on the subject, and our brief cites it in the references. I'm going to use Ms. Thorne's example, which illustrates the subject well. The community school centre is a good example of the vitality of the minority communities, which the Official Languages Act aims to promote.

Official Languages committee  As regards the main challenge, I hope the federal government will exercise leadership and work with the provinces, territories and communities in the true spirit of Canadian linguistic duality to establish a genuine action plan. If Canada manages to establish a well organized plan that includes the provinces and territories, as well as the communities themselves, which will become accountable as a result, instead of merely scattering money here and there, that could be an example to the world.

Official Languages committee  First, I think I'll answer the second question because it involves a number of things. I drew an analogy with a community party. When I talk about the public, I'm not talking about organizations; I'm talking about civil society, about the society that takes part and that is well aware of its rights.

Official Languages committee  I'm not an expert on that. However, I think that, regardless of the colour of the government, if there were genuine leadership, the federal government would seek to forge ties with the other provincial ministries in order to form a whole. For example, while we have a right to schools, we have no right as regards early childhood.

Official Languages committee  I'd like to take the opportunity to talk about this subject. Indeed, I believe this is one of the harmful effects of the current action plan, an effect that I don't think is intentional. The wish was to make each of the departments accountable. So the money is distributed very widely.

Official Languages committee  We submitted it this morning.

Official Languages committee  Good morning. My name is Rodrigue Landry, and I am the director of the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities. The Institute is funded by the federal government and is concerned with official language minorities. As researchers, we conduct studies on Anglophones in Quebec and Francophones outside Quebec.

Official Languages committee  I represent the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities.