Canadian Heritage committee  We would both like to answer that question, Ms. Savoie. I'll respond first and then I'll ask Ms. Sotteau to talk about the quantitative and qualitative side of things. Now, section 41 of the Official Languages Act sets out the terms of reference. Section 41 is a little more subs

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm very pleased to hear that, Ms. Bourgeois.

Canadian Heritage committee  I do not know how much you have travelled throughout the country, Ms. Bourgeois, but there is no doubt that Radio-Canada or the Broadcasting Act have no control over cable companies. So we do find that in hotels sometimes the French channel is eliminated in favour of the cartoon

Canadian Heritage committee  That is really too bad.

Canadian Heritage committee  Our federation has often spoken out against this practice. Unfortunately, we have no power in this area. If you have an opportunity to look at the programming schedule while you are here—or perhaps Ms. Fryor Ms. Savoie, who are from the region, could show it to you—you will see

Canadian Heritage committee  I have been living in Vancouver for approximately 30 years. I arrived there in 1976. I therefore witnessed the development of radio and television in British Columbia. Services are being cut. In 1995, we almost lost our news bulletin, which is 22 to 25 minutes long. It was going

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be making my presentation in French. Thank you for this invitation and for the opportunity to share our thoughts on the role of public broadcasters in the 21st century. As you know, the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique is

Official Languages committee  What this plan shows isn't new. Just refer to section 41 of the Official Languages Act. It starts from there. Here's what we did with this plan: we targeted departments in order to help Canadian citizens living in a minority setting. Here it's Francophones; in Quebec, it's Anglo

Official Languages committee  I insist that we call it the federal government's Action Plan for Official Languages because that's important. Mr. Dion pushed it, but now it's up to your government to ensure that the official languages are everywhere.

Official Languages committee  I haven't seen any funding for capital investment under the Action Plan for Official Languages. The provinces have to agree with the federal government on education. At the time of the Mulroney government, among other things, funding was paid to the schools for capital investment

Official Languages committee  I think that's essential for the future of Francophone communities. At least that's the case of ours, in British Columbia. I don't know the situation in the other provinces. However, I imagine that all the child care centres in New Brunswick are already operational. This is reall

Official Languages committee  I can answer you. In fact, they're courses offered by the Alliance Française Vancouver to the Chinese community, among others. That organization signed an agreement with representatives of this community. The mission of Alliance Française is to promote French culture, but also to

Official Languages committee  They are creations of the French government. In Vancouver, the Alliance Française is a support member of the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique.

Official Languages committee  Perhaps we should emphasize two points. We have immersion here. At the postsecondary level, it's important, once grade 12 is completed—if we really want a bilingual country—to give students and every citizen opportunities to function in French. In British Columbia, 7% of the popu

Official Languages committee  I'd like to say two things, Mr. Godin. As regards the Action Plan for Official Languages, I'm going to tell you what our community's major need is. There's an obvious deficiency in this action plan, which incidentally is a good plan. It has enabled progress to be made in various