At the 9^th Ministerial Conference on Francophone Affairs, Ministers review the past 10 years of inter-governmental cooperation on the development of French-speaking and Acadian communities, and French Language at large, in Canada. The last 10 years of the FACM have paved the way to increased cooperation and a genuine update of Canada’s linguistic duality.

FACM says that in its unique position as facilitators of communication, it is ready to respond to the needs of the communities.
The 2004 Intergovernmental Action Plan is adopted, and includes 7 intervention sectors: intergovernmental cooperation; health services in French; early childhood; cultural development; reinforcing French-language space; access to legal services in French; and economic development in French-speaking communities.

Three presentations are given. The first is about the Dialogue Nouveau-Brunswick program aimed at promoting understanding, respect and appreciation between New Brunswick’s French-speaking and English-speaking communities. The second is by the French Canadian Cultural Federation regarding a proposal to ministers to liaison within their governments in order to initiate and encourage dialogue between government and cultural organizations. The third presentation is given by the Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française, who share recommendations from the Canada-Wide Youth Forum held in Moncton.

At the Conference, the following decisions are made:

• The role of the Ministerial Conference will be redefined and its terminology reviewed in order to portray more accurately French-language priorities in Canada.
• The relevance of having co-presidents from provinces, territories and the Federal government will be evaluated.
• The feasibility of a National French-language Day in Canada will be studied.
• A task force ensuring faster renewal of FTP agreements by meeting with the Federal government on this issue will be created.
• Provinces and Territories will write an official and concerted request to the Federal government to ensure fair and sustainable financing to French-language programs in Canada.