Hon. Pierrette Ringuette: I would like to ask Senator Cormier a question.

Hon. Pierrette Ringuette: Senator Gold, I need to ask you a question. Responsibility for minorities in this country lies in the federal government’s spending power and responsibility. What I am reading here in this amendment is not something we have seen before. In any case, I didn’t see it, and I asked different people if they had seen a copy of the agreement signed between the federal government and the Government of New Brunswick, for example, which, according to you, contains certain obligations.

As Senator Poirier pointed out, the province of New Brunswick provides only 16% of seats when it should be providing 33% of seats for New Brunswick’s francophone community. It is therefore up to the federal government, using this provision, to make up for what it is unable to accomplish through the agreement with the province. That’s where I see the federal government’s responsibility. Apart from New Brunswick, no other province in Canada has a constitutional responsibility to its minority communities. Some provinces have legislation, but in practice, if an agreement exists with a province that does not respect minorities or the commitments made to them, that becomes a federal responsibility.