Official Languages committee  No. We understand that the signature on the overall one is—

Official Languages committee  We don't have the new road map in front of us, but one of the things that struck us—with the understanding that this was at first reading and not with major analysis—was a focus in the language on a whole range of auxiliary and complementary programs. Frankly, what worried us at

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It should be remembered that French-immersion schools by law are English-language schools. Thus any limitations that might be imposed by Bill 14, we would suggest, are pertinent. We would start on Bill 14 by reminding you that our raison d'être and some

Official Languages committee  I guess we would very quickly review some of the things we had said, one...sorry?

Official Languages committee  Yes. I think we enumerated some of them.

Official Languages committee  It's that the Quebec-Canada entente be very carefully dealt with and completed. The notion of community input, our own and that of other minority language associations, is absolutely essential. I'm sorry, but the amount of money is meaningless if we have no major input into how i

Official Languages committee  We understand there are very advanced discussions, and quite positive ones, being done with great discretion, because the minister responsible in Quebec has made public statements noting they will simply try to grab every dollar without any discussion. But we do understand at the

Official Languages committee  That is a good question. We don't claim to be able to answer for other provinces and territories. I will nevertheless make one or two observations on the subject. We must all demystify and eliminate the idea that this is a program for elites. This is often discussed and it affe

Official Languages committee  Generally speaking, access to our schools is rather limited by the Charter of the French Language. We are not calling it into question, aside from the new proposals that are currently before the National Assembly. Moreover, as we mentioned — and it is relevant to our discussions

Official Languages committee  Sure. I will very quickly, and my colleagues might have things to add. We work really closely with the Canadian School Boards Association at the school board level. The principals have a national association as well. Given that education is a provincial jurisdiction, one of the

Official Languages committee  The groups that benefit from these funds, including our school boards, often say that delays cause a major challenge. This is also a problem we experience with our own provincial government. Furthermore, certain parameters do not provide them with the flexibility they require. I'

Official Languages committee  My understanding is that except for perhaps a couple of the programmes ponctuels, it would be funnelled directly through the Ministry of Education, when you're talking about education.

Official Languages committee  That's a very helpful question. I think we would point to a least one, and perhaps two. To start with, I think francophones in the rest of the country probably join us in being pioneers with respect to distance education and e-learning. We don't find a very enthusiastic ear wit

Official Languages committee  It is fascinating. We were discussing the diversity of our system and that is another example. I can tell you without hesitation that a high percentage of students of the Central Quebec School Board, who have access to schooling in English of course, or they would not be among u

Official Languages committee  Certainly. First of all, these people are responsible for ensuring that the students speak French well, but English too, given that this is an English-language school board. In this school board, in the Lester B. Pearson School Board and others as well, a growing percentage of s