Official Languages committee  If you allow me, Mr. Chairman, I may add that I think that the day we have in Canada competent and full-fledged teachers of second language, whether they be immersion teachers or French or English second-language teachers, and the day that we have programs in all of the schools t

Official Languages committee  Yes, it is working very well. I should point out something interesting. Currently, about 2,500 students are enrolled in that immersion program. Sixty-five percent of them are products of other immersion programs—a rather encouraging indicator—and the remaining 35% are products o

Official Languages committee  Absolutely.

Official Languages committee  I think this is the kind of leadership the federal government must show regarding these programs.

Official Languages committee  Yes, thank you. Ms. Michaud, your question is interesting. As you probably know, second language teaching is not protected by any legislation. It's up to each province and territory to put programs in place based on their budgets, means and the context in which the government op

Official Languages committee  Had it not been for the federal government, these programs would still be more scattered and probably disconnected in a number of provinces. I'm talking about second language programs where there really isn't a lot of cohesion from province to province, and the federal…

Official Languages committee  Yes, I'm finishing up. So I was saying that, in my opinion, the federal government's leadership is essential in this area.