Official Languages committee  We talked about the census before you arrived, and I wanted to underscore the importance of enumerating all rights-holders, both francophones outside Quebec and anglophones in Quebec. For the moment, the census enumerates no anglophones. The Commissioner of Official Languages mus

Official Languages committee  I think it's also really important that the act be non-partisan. As you said, the election is coming. I hope we can continue to fight for the modernization of the act.

Official Languages committee  No, I'm not saying it's partisan. In fact, it's one of the acts that are really non-partisan. Some acts are a little more so in some instances. Here we're talking about an act that protects our identity. Canada's official languages are English and French. It's important to promot

Official Languages committee  I think there are two possibilities. You can give money directly to the school boards and give the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages more teeth.

Official Languages committee  You can give money in return for a product. For example, you can grant supplementary funding intended for the francophone minority. You must therefore check to see whether that money has really been used as supplementary funding and for the intended purposes. Was it really given

Official Languages committee  The province would then have to prove that $25 was used for the francophonie.

Official Languages committee  Exactly. You have to have accountability. If you don't, then the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages has to have more teeth. The office can conduct investigations and bring court actions in an attempt to enforce the Official Languages Act, but it has no real power. T

Official Languages committee  In fact, the infrastructure that has been built is too small. A new school was built for the École des Pionniers-de-Maillardville, which used to have approximately 390 students. The new building is supposed to be able to accommodate 560. We were told that was enough, that we woul

Official Languages committee  We have carried out pilot projects for children 4 years of age in our schools. We used money from OLEP for that purpose, but it covers only 5 out of 40 schools. I checked with the Ministry of Education to see how much it would cost us, for example, to provide services to children

Official Languages committee  We should start by including the school boards. Most of the school boards didn't exist when the act was originally drafted. We should be included in the act because we have a role to play. Language is transmitted via culture and education, but we aren't included for the moment. I

Official Languages committee  I just want to confirm what was just said. When money is provided to purchase a product, there has to be a product, but that's not the case at the moment. There's no consultation or accountability. There was a choice of six courses in English for high school students but only one

Official Languages committee  Annex B to our brief contains a map that shows where our students are. We have to know where they are. We can't just have a sample. We have to know where all the young people are so we can know where to build our schools and where to focus our efforts. Last year, we received fou

Official Languages committee  That might be a good idea. In British Columbia, we don't even have an agreement on French-language services. We're really starting from square one. This could show how important these measures are. When we talk about changing the 60/40 ratio, we're told that nothing can be done a

Official Languages committee  Yes, it's always complicated. However, it would be far preferable to give the money directly to the school boards, for example, or to the people who come, because we would see that money instead of wondering where it went. As Marc-André Ouellette would say, finding where the mon

Official Languages committee  I just want to tell you that we met the Commissioner of Official Languages and suggested a change to the act. We could send it to you.