Official Languages committee  I won't say any more. Second, we have to remember that, when we invest $1 in a given area of provincial activity, it is very likely that the province itself is investing an amount far in excess of ours. That means that the one federal dollar is hard to trace when there are ten o

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will kick things off, but my colleague Jean-Pierre Gauthier will give the presentation. It is a pleasure to be here. We fully understand that this is a technical presentation on subjects that are perhaps a little obscure in a number of ways. We are going

Official Languages committee  That is an important question. With respect to accountability for what is done under the roadmap, it is possible for MPs, as it is for anyone else, to find out exactly what is being spent by consulting the documents that Mr. Gauthier referred to a little earlier. We can probably

Official Languages committee  You are right. The fact that the majority population is so keenly interested and therefore wants to send their children to learn the minority language is quite unique in the world.

Official Languages committee  You are right. There is an appetite that is not completely satisfied.

Official Languages committee  Certainly.

Official Languages committee  I would like to add something. We invite members of the minority communities to take part in these consultations, as well as Canadians who are part of the majority—let us call it that. In many of these consultations, an interesting dialogue is established between the minority a

Official Languages committee  That is a fact; many are trained in Quebec and teach outside their home province. We also have a monitor program that provides support to students, often Quebecers, so they in turn can support teachers from French schools elsewhere in the country.

Official Languages committee  I simply want to recall that these tests are administered by organizations that are under contract to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. So these outside organizations are accredited by the department to administer the tests.

Official Languages committee  Health was discussed around the consultation tables, and I think we can say without boasting that it is a field where there have been great successes. There are two basic areas: the training of health professionals, which represents an investment of—

Official Languages committee  It is an investment of $106 million over five years. Then there is the number of professionals who have been trained: thousands since the action plans started. It is not just physicians who have been trained at linguistic minority institutions and then who serve minority communit

Official Languages committee  —but also nurses, paramedics, stretcher-bearers, and people at all levels: the first area is therefore training. The second area is health networks. To give you an idea that is quite spectacular, 2,400 professionals have been trained since 2013. We are talking about francophones

Official Languages committee  You are right in saying it is a big step to achieve the 4.4% target—my colleague Mr. Gauthier talked about that a little earlier. One of the things we often hear is that there is a flaw in the way francophone immigrants are directed when they set foot in Canada. That flaw lies in

Official Languages committee  In fact, the provisions of the new program make it easier for minority media to qualify. The eligibility threshold is lower for minority media. That was a consideration when the new program was developed.

Official Languages committee  Yes.