Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to welcome Mr. Gilbert, who is on the other end of the line, in the country of our ancestors.

You cannot see us, but we may have an opportunity to meet in Paris in two weeks, since I will be at the Canadian embassy with the Canada-France Interparliamentary Association. Perhaps we will be able to talk at greater length.

Mr. Gauthier, you say in your conclusion that the Government of Canada is committed to promoting Canada's official languages as well as the vitality of official language minority communities. How can your department help promote Canada's official languages when it has made cuts to Radio-Canada, a public radio and television broadcasting corporation? You do not talk about arts and culture, but we are going to talk about them now.

In Moncton, in the Atlantic region, which is a francophone minority region, we have been fortunate to have programs such as Belle-Baie, which was filmed in Caraquet. Francophones outside Quebec and in minority regions very much identify with that program. There was La Revue acadienne as well. However, all that has been eliminated.

The government says it has not touched the $1.2 billion roadmap. It says it is investing in our communities, but here it is taking something fundamentally important away from us, something that helps unite people. You also mentioned education, and I will get back to that. I do not understand where the Conservatives are headed. It is as though they want to eliminate our public radio and television. They are responsible under the act for guaranteeing a francophone presence in the minority regions, whether it be in Whitehorse, Nanaimo, British Columbia, or anywhere in Saskatchewan. They are responsible for promoting official languages.

I would like to hear your comments on that.

Yvon Godin

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