Canada: a financial assistance program to promote French

The action and promotion plan for English and French, unveiled by the Canadian government, plans to invest more than three billion Canadian dollars (illustration photo). © Getty Images

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2 min

After months of waiting, the Canadian government has just unveiled an action plan to promote official languages, English and French. Nearly C$3.6 billion will be invested over five years, mainly to support the declining number of Francophones.

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With our correspondent in Montreal, Pascale Guéricolas

If Francophones represented 6.1% of the Canadian population outside Quebec in 1971, they were only 3.5% in 2021. The Canadian government is capitalizing on the arrival of new French-speaking citizens by allocating funding to several reception and integration services.

In many declining French-speaking Canadian regions, the arrival of French-speaking immigrants is a breath of fresh air. Fabien Hébert, President of the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario, welcomes the measures announced to recruit candidates from abroad and then facilitate their integration. Especially since it will be able to meet the need for a workforce in French: "There is a shortage of about 2,500 Francophone teachers in the province, at the nursing staff level," explains Fabien Hébert. In francophone communities where there is less immigration, we see the declines that continue to increase in those communities. The stability of Ontario's Francophone community depends on immigration.

Improving the cultural offer

The funds promised will also help improve the cultural offer in French for young people. The Fédération des jeunes francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick relies heavily on a French-language song creation contest to help middle school students take ownership of their mother tongue: "It's easy to choose English if you don't have a sense of belonging," says Maude Saunier of the Fédération des jeunes francophones. We strongly believe that it is through experiences in French that we can feel this sense of belonging, and it gives opportunities to young people, especially in minority regions.

Several French-speaking artists addicted to the song allowed them to make their debut on the music scene.

► Read also: In Canada, Francophones are less and less numerous

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Read on on the same topics:

• Canada
• Education
• Francophonie
• French language
• Quebec