Official Languages committee  I think it varies from region to region and from university to university. Obviously, if we want to retain international students with a view to granting them permanent residency, the process has to be started as soon as they arrive, not in their fourth year of study. Contact wit

Official Languages committee  Obviously, if we want to increase the student population in the school system, we have to start with early childhood, before children go to school. We have to ensure that children have a sufficient command of the minority language to be able to go to school. It's a choice that pa

Official Languages committee  We've seen a number of barriers to achieving that target in the past. First, we must ensure that we recruit candidates where there are significant francophone populations. In the past, I think we focused on certain European regions, but I often say that the future of French lies

Official Languages committee  I think it's Air Canada.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for the question. Earlier, I talked about the labour shortage in education and health care. A number of provinces have recruited a lot of nurses from abroad, but they don't seem to be doing the same thing to find teachers. It's crucial that we provide guidance to these

Official Languages committee  Early childhood services are not offered in the official language of choice—I'm talking about French here. If we want to encourage people to learn a language in a minority situation, we need to start as early as possible. We also have to take into account the fact that there are

Official Languages committee  The administrative monetary penalty regime will not come into force immediately upon royal assent. There will have to be an order in council, followed by regulations. This is not a power that I will be able to use right away. The other mechanisms in the bill will also be very use

Official Languages committee  Actually, there are no designated bilingual regions in British Columbia. They are mainly the National Capital Region, Greater Montreal and part of New Brunswick. There are none in the west.

Official Languages committee  A distinction must be made between federal agencies subject to the act, which must provide services in both official languages, and regions designated as bilingual for language‑of‑work purposes. It's not the same thing. What we'd like is for all public servants, regardless of wh

Official Languages committee  Yes, 4.4% is not enough. We should at least double that target. Others are talking about 12% or more as a way to get things back on track.

Official Languages committee  What I can tell you is that, for the most part, there's a lack of services in French for francophones.

Official Languages committee  It happens in both languages. Sometimes, in staff meetings outside Quebec, for example, they say “hello/bonjour” and “agenda/ordre du jour”, but the meeting is held in English. There could be a similar situation in Quebec. A Quebec official told me that working in French was not

Official Languages committee  The target should be doubled at least. The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, or FCFA, says 12%. I believe we need to do a real demographic analysis to determine the impact of that target. We know the consequences of not meeting the target, which woul

Official Languages committee  Absolutely.

Official Languages committee  I feel the action plan was developed based on consultations that took place outside Quebec, with francophone communities outside Quebec and the anglophone community in Quebec. The purpose of the Official Languages Act and the action plan is to support official language minority c