Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good day, gentlemen.
Approximately two weeks ago, I took part in a meeting with people from the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau. Perhaps you were there. The conferences were excellent. Some of your former colleagues, among others, and people working in research told us about very interesting analyses on the 40 years of the Official Languages Act. The commitment of the machinery of government was one of the issues raised during the discussions. This relates to one of the four nerve centres of the federal government with regard to the official languages. I won't give you a detailed overview of everything that was said. Unfortunately we don't have the time.
Someone whom you know raised a point that I find extremely relevant. I would like to hear your reaction to this. Someone talked about the recruitment of new employees to the federal public service. There is an unease in this area, and consequently this entire issue is being studied by the committee. We are looking at the issue of bilingualism in the public service. Among other things, we are looking at the learning of official languages at the elementary, secondary and university levels. However, this speaker stressed the fact that, during recruiting, the federal government is not presenting itself as a bilingual employer. This realization was made by someone who is extremely familiar with the federal public service.
I would like to hear your suggestions on this subject, to hear how you think this could be improved.