Senator Miville-Dechêne: Good evening and welcome to the Senate, commissioner. I would like to take you a little further away from the legal realm. I would like to know how concerned you are, or not, about the decline or growth of francophone minorities in Canada.

This morning, a French teacher wrote in La Presse that teenagers spend so much time reading content and watching videos in English on social media that it is threatening the French language, because language acquisition is correlated with practising it. This poses a danger for francophones in Quebec, of course, but isn’t it even worse for francophone minority communities? You spoke a lot about services, laws and schools, but here we are talking about an incredibly powerful medium, the internet, which is literally wiping out French in some cases.

Ms. Burke: Indeed, the digital realm is now an important issue when it comes to maintaining French, including the issue of AI, which generally provides service in English. The active offer in the digital realm as in AI is mainly in English.

That’s a real concern. I don’t have all the answers to the questions. That’s something new for the vast majority of us. The fact that this technology is entering society so quickly is a major issue that needs to be addressed now. Ideally, we need to take stock of the situation to understand its scope and advise governments on national programs that might respond to or at least assess this technology’s impact.

Senator Miville-Dechêne: As commissioner, you don’t necessarily have the tools to intervene in this area, which poses the biggest threat to French for minority francophones.

Ms. Burke: Indeed, technology can help us. In my previous role, I saw that it can deliver services in both French and English. Equivalence is an issue on some websites, and this has been a big help in determining whether we would have a skilled workforce to offer this service in all departments.

People are less likely to come ask questions in person; they ask them through technology instead. This technology, often available in both official languages, allows us to meet the needs of both English-speaking and French-speaking communities while providing a very high quality of service.

On the one hand, there are challenges; on the other, technology can help us. It is a matter of finding the right balance.

The Chair: Thank you.