Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for your question. This is perhaps the most difficult part to explain. I will do my best to answer your question. We had two options in designing the bill. We could have waited until we had all the data, all the details, for the 90 indigenous languages to come up with

Canadian Heritage committee  We have had consultations with educators. Stephen, could you tell us which educational institutions we consulted?

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  You're making a very important point, and thank you for making it. That's why, when I mentioned a little earlier how broad we wanted to be in terms of which organizations can be part of an agreement for the purpose of maintaining languages, it could also include provincial or ter

Canadian Heritage committee  That would be possible.

Canadian Heritage committee  That would be possible. We wanted to make sure that we did not exclude those situations. That's precisely why we didn't limit it to self-government or band councils, as you mentioned earlier, and we made indigenous groups broader. For example, the school boards in Manitoba would

Canadian Heritage committee  Or to use them, because you see, it's about reclaiming, revitalizing and promoting. A big element of promotion is about using it in your services. A self-governing nation, a band council or a Métis government could say, “We want to promote the use of our language by having prog

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, we consulted the indigenous peoples of the Maritime provinces, particularly the Mi'kmaq.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, we also consulted the Maliseet.

Canadian Heritage committee  Coincidentally, one of you asked the minister earlier what he had learned from the consultations. I had an answer to suggest to him, and I'm glad you gave me the chance to give it to you. In fact, the variety of needs and the diversity of indigenous languages are the real wealth

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay.

Canadian Heritage committee  You're making a very important point that it's not an easy balance. I think if we work on perpetuating the project-driven type of funding, we will actually enhance that polarization between the ones that have less capacity and the ones that have more. We will of course cater to t

Canadian Heritage committee  It could be less than that.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can tell you that that was quite forcefully explained to us by our partners, and I'm saying that very humbly. You will have Mr. Bellegarde here, and you will probably want to ask him about the discussion we had about that. We definitely were committed to actually implementing

Canadian Heritage committee  The UNDRIP is an international instrument, as you know, and it has very clear definition of a series of objectives that pertain to languages. As with any international instrument, it needs to be operationalized in domestic law. The reference in the preamble and purposes of the a