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Composed of the Honourable Pierre De Bané, Senator and President of the Canadian Branch, the delegation was accompanied by Jean Michel Roy, Executive Secretary to the Branch. The following branches were represented at the meeting: Alberta, Canada, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec. During the morning of Wednesday, March 22, the Conference members attended the House of Representatives and the Senate of the State of Maine for special ceremonies marking Franco-American Day. During the ceremonies in the House of Representatives, Rosaire Paradis, State Representative and President of the Maine Branch, introduced a joint resolution honouring Franco-Americans. This resolution called for “Franco-American Day to be celebrated in March every year to commemorate the rich history of the French people in the state of Maine and in the United States of America.” In the afternoon, the Conference members attended a meeting of the Franco-American business community. Discussion included various issues pertaining to relations between Canada, Quebec, France and Maine. In the evening, the participants went to the Franco-American Centre in Lewiston, to meet community members. On Thursday, March 23, during the Conference meeting, Senator Pierre De Bané presented a summary of the deliberations of the APF Bureau meeting, held in Nouméa, New Caledonia, from February 3 to 5, 2006. During subsequent discussions regarding action to be taken on resolutions adopted at the XXII Session of the Americas Regional Assembly, held in Edmonton, in September 2005, Senator De Bané indicated that a letter was sent to the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Pierre Pettigrew, informing him of the resolution pertaining to the Web sites of foreign diplomatic missions in Canada. With the change in government, though, another letter will be sent to the current Minister of Foreign Affairs. The resolution calls for the “Protocol Office of Foreign Affairs Canada to appeal to foreign diplomatic missions to implement a communications policy reflecting Canada’s linguistic duality in all their communications with the public whether by telephone, in publications for the general public, on their Web site, in correspondence with Canadians etc.” Follow-up action on a second resolution pertaining to the integration of immigrants into Francophone communities in the Americas Region of the APF was also considered. Letters will be sent to the appropriate ministers. Moreover, Senator De Bané informed the Conference that the next theme developed by the Canadian Branch for the XXIII Session of the Americas Regional Assembly will pertain to action on Bill S-3 – An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act (promotion of English and French). The possibility of new branches joining the Americas Region was also discussed at the meeting. The last item on the agenda was the balance of revenues and expenditures of the APF Americas Region for the current fiscal year, and budget estimates for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. At the end of the session, it was agreed that the next meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the Americas Region Branch and the XXIII Session of the Americas Regional Assembly will be held in Toronto, from August 23 to 27, 2006. Respectfully submitted, The
Hon. Pierre De Bané, Senator
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