Official Languages committee  In British Columbia, the francophone community has definitely been significantly expanded as a result of that action plan. However, I see that, in the regions, the officials responsible for official languages under Part VII of the Official Languages Act are disadvantaged. They don't have the necessary resources or, in many cases, the training necessary to carry out their role effectively.

Official Languages committee  That wouldn't be sufficient or acceptable. I can tell you about communities located in the northwestern part of the province, such as Campbell River, Nelson, Comox and Kitimat. They have branches. For your information, if you're interested, there are jobs in branches that offer $15 to $18 an hour.

Official Languages committee  Some of our communities receive confirmation in October. So 25% is distinctly inadequate.

Official Languages committee  To date, in terms of planning, VANOC has been peerless. It has managed to develop an official languages reflex. Currently we're seeing a possible slide between planning and actual implementation operations. We have some concerns in certain areas: health, safety and services for athletes and families.

Official Languages committee  The francophone community of British Columbia was involved before the games were even won. We sat on the committee in order to ensure that Canada and Vancouver could get the games. We're very directly involved as a partner.

Official Languages committee  We have a collaboration agreement with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). We're working virtually on a daily basis with games organizers to ensure that bilingualism is respected in every area of activity, in every activity that is carried out during the games.

Official Languages committee  From our perspective, there have definitely been some regional variations that were much appreciated, and we expect to be able to continue this positive effort with the Department of Canadian Heritage. The mechanisms of the agreement that were established jointly with the Department of Canadian Heritage work very well.

Official Languages committee  It's a matter of rights. We have to be able to live linguistic duality across the country. Quebec anglophones have a right to their institutions and strong communities. I absolutely agree on the points that have been raised by my colleague and counterpart from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Official Languages committee  The departments are waiting for the Department of Canadian Heritage to make its action plan known first before—

Official Languages committee  And it's not making it known. So everyone is waiting for some leadership.

Official Languages committee  In fact, 300,000 British Columbians can or say they can speak French. The community consists of 64,000 francophones, but we have a vision of a much broader community than that.

Official Languages committee  We're currently seeing that pressure is being exercised services in French: the schools are overflowing, and people from across the country and elsewhere in the world want to enter Canadian society. So they need services at the college level in order to get a postsecondary education.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely, and that's a crime. Our francophones are anglicizing and losing their language because assimilation rates are unacceptable.

Official Languages committee  It seems to us that the officials in the regions are as uninformed as we are. There has been no contact. And yet they know that we've already started our work. With regard to the evaluations, only yesterday we received an e-mail from Ottawa including an evaluation exercise. That on-line exercise was carried out by a major Montreal firm.

Official Languages committee  I can answer that briefly. It's a big concern, and we are also concerned about the impact that has on the funding granted by other departments. I'm thinking of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, the Department of Western Economic Diversification and the Department of Health.