(Montreal) The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) is asking Minister Jean-François Roberge to create an action group “to ensure the delivery of francization services” with key players from government and organizations.
Mr. Roberge has been in charge of the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration for a week. In a letter addressed to him, the opposition spokesperson on these issues, André A. Morin, states that the government has “broken the moral contract that exists between the state and newcomers.”
He blames the CAQ’s “flagrant lack of planning” for this, citing among other things the delays in accessing French language courses and the abolition of allowances offered for part-time French language learning.
“We have hundreds of people who are registered for French language training […] and who are not able to have classes,” he summarizes in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Mr. Morin says that temporary workers are essential to the Quebec economy, and that we must be able to integrate them and Frenchify them. “When I refer to the moral contract, that’s what I’m referring to, the government has an obligation to do it, but it is incapable.”
He hopes the committee will allow the ministry to “stop working in silos” and collaborate with the Ministry of Education and agencies on this issue.
The opposition’s leader on francization claims to have met with many organizations working toward this goal. He says they tell him that the government comes to see them, but that it “doesn’t hear anything and doesn’t change anything.”
Mr. Morin notes that, being both Minister of Francisation and the French language, Mr. Roberge has “not only an obligation towards immigrants, but also towards Quebec society, of which he is the principal guarantor of the vitality of its official and common language.”
At the time of writing, the ministry had not responded to questions from The Canadian Press on this subject.
PQ MP Pascal Bérubé said in an interview that it was “sad to have reached this point.”
“When it gets to the point that it’s the Quebec Liberal Party that’s giving lessons to the CAQ on French, francization and protection of the language, it’s a sign that things aren’t flying high on the CAQ side.”