First, the implementation of the official languages policy as a whole is what is relevant to Part VII of the Act. This refers to agreements between the federal government and the provinces and territories. In this respect, one example would be the memorandum of understanding we signed with the Education ministers across Canada.
In terms of improvements, we would like to make consultations accountable under Part III. The result, be it in the field of education, health services or any other field affected by the government's action plan on official languages, also depend on our relationship with the provinces. Health and education are provincial area of jurisdiction, and we would not want to see the results challenged before the court. Why? Because they are often the fruit of our negotiations with the provinces. It is important to ensure that adequate consultations are carried out with stakeholder organizations in the community as a whole before the process is completed. Moreover, we have to see to it that the negotiations with our partners are not strictly on a bilateral basis: in other words, the federal government must also have done its homework.
If the results were justiciable, that would imply that anyone could argue that the federal and provincial governments are not investing enough into for instance bilingual health care services. The results would be challenged before the court. What would happen then? First, everything would probably be at a stand still for years and then, undue pressure would be brought to bear on the province, which also has a limited ability to pay.
So, we suggest being accountable before the consultations which lead to the results rather than for the results themselves.