Language issues have also been closely linked with those of social inclusion, particularly with respect to sign languages and the recognition that they are not only languages for deaf people and their families, and to the language skills of immigrants, where a significant focus has been placed on second language learning.

(Return tabled) Question No. 885 Mr. Pierre Dionne Labelle: With regard to the use of French by Canada Border Services Agency: (a) how many officers at the various border crossings are able to work (i) only in English, broken down by border crossing, (ii) only in French, broken down by border crossing, (iii) in both official languages, broken down by border crossing; (b) what was the amount spent on French as a second language training for border services officers from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; (c) what was the amount sp ...[+++]ent on English as a second language training for border services officers from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; (d) how many border services officers have taken or will take French as a second language training from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; (e) how many border services officers have taken or will take English as a second language training from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; and (f) what proportion of border crossings have been able to provide service in French at all times (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), from 2008 to 2012, broken down by year?

(Return tabled) Question No. 227 Mr. Rodger Cuzner: With respect to the last hiring process that took place for the position of Director General, Regional Operations for Prince Edward Island (PEI) (Mr. Kevin MacAdam) at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA): (a) when was the job position posted; (b) where was the position posted (i.e., website, newspapers, etc.); (c) for how long was the position posted in each medium; (d) was it an external or internal posting; (e) what information appeared in each posting medium; (f) who specifically developed and approved the job posting qualifications; (g) was this a newly created pos ...[+++]ition, and, if not, what information appeared on the posting for the previous compeition for the position (i.e., that of Mr. MacAdam's predecessor); (h) what was the job description for this position prior to the last hiring process; (i) what is the current job description, if it is different from the description in (h); (j) what is the pay scale for this position; (k) has the pay scale for this position changed with the new hiring of Mr. MacAdam; (l) what were the French-language requirements (i.e., levels of proficiency A, B, or C) for this job when it was originally posted; (m) have the French-language requirements (i.e., levels of proficiency A, B, or C) changed with the latest hiring process for this position; (n) is there a Director General, Regional Operations position in ACOA for each of the other three Atlantic provinces (i.e., New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), and Nova Scotia (NS)), and, if yes, what is, for each position, (i) the pay scale, (ii) the job description, (iii) the French-language requirements (i.e., levels of proficiency A, B, or C); (o) are there any positions with ACOA for which bilingualism is a requirement to be hired, and, if so, what are they; (p) in the last five years, in how many cases and for which positions have newly hired ACOA employees started their employment by being r ...

For instance, one of the things the university brought in this year is a certificate of second language competency. This means that every student can have their second language fluency assessed, can improve their language skills, and if a student wants to work in a bilingual environment, they will know that they need to have a certain level of fluency.

Universities, research institutes and second-language associations should be funded to support research in second- language acquisition, learning, assessment and teaching, to know what works best, how to improve and what to improve.

The second point that we emphasized in the paper is the very high level of support today for the importance of learning a second language, and for learning French as a second language in particular, if you are an anglophone in Canada: 77 per cent of anglophones outside Quebec will say it is important for their children to learn a second language, 74 per cent will say that the second language that is most important for their children to learn is French and 75 per cent of anglophones outside Quebec who do not speak French say they wish they did.