Hon. Tony Loffreda: Thank you, minister, for being with us this afternoon. I would like to speak about the issue of minority language rights in Canada.

[English]

My question is on protecting the rights of English-speaking minorities in Quebec and French-speaking minorities across Canada. Although the question has been asked, I noticed that the minister wanted to elaborate further on how you plan to protect minority rights in Quebec. I welcome additional comments on this important issue.

Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne: Welcome, minister. As we know, many of the services offered to francophone minority communities depend on their demographic weight, which is declining. Francophone immigration is probably the most effective remedy. However, Bill C-13 merely states that the future immigration policy is one of the factors that contributes to maintaining or increasing the demographic weight of the francophone and Acadian communities.

Minister, isn’t this vocabulary too weak, too vague, to ensure that we have an ambitious policy, considering that, for more than 20 years, Canada hasn’t met the targets set in this area at all? The current rate of francophone immigration outside Quebec is only 2%, when we would need a target of 8% just to maintain our demographic weight.