Francization | The one-stop shop will be ready in June, assures the Ministry

“More doubt than confidence” on the ground

This time it’s the right one, promises the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI). Announced many times, never delivered, the ambitious one-stop project allowing easy access to all the francization courses offered by Quebec will open as planned in less than six months, assures the Ministry.

“This large-scale work is well underway and will enable Francisation Québec to be put into operation on 1^er June 2023,” MIFI spokesperson Marie-Hélène Blouin told us by email.

The Ministry is already “the single entry point” for full-time courses and it will be “the same logic for part-time” on 1^er next June. Francization in business will also come under Francisation Québec.

“The Technology Portal […] will be easy to use and clear for customers,” says Mr.^me Blouin.

Francization Québec is an “administrative unit” created by the An Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French (Law 96), which provides for its entry into force on 1^er June 2023.

Promised in 2008

However, this one-stop-shop project is not its first announcement. In 1998, a working group on francization proposed the idea to what was then called the Ministry of Relations with Citizens and Immigration (MRCI).

Ten years later, in 2008, Liberal Minister Yolande James, head of the Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities (MICC), announced that a “unified counter for access to francization services” would be implemented Next year.

In the fall of 2011, the MICC’s annual management report announced that “the implementation of the window will follow in 2012-2013”. Rather, it will be stopped. “The project was stopped in June 2012”, recalls a feasibility study obtained by The Press.

In 2017, the action plan of the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion (MIDI) announced the implementation of a unified window from “spring 2018 to [l’]summer 2019”.

In the spring of 2018, it was rather “September 2019” that was mentioned by an assistant deputy minister before a committee of the National Assembly – for the implementation of the first phase, intended for full-time clients.

In October 2019, the progress of the window for full-time services is included in the MIFI annual report. It is 3%.

As of September 30, it was 39%, indicates the MIFI, specifying that this figure takes into account the three phases of the project (pre-project, planning, execution).

“Information is disseminated”

No one questions the relevance of a one-stop shop to help non-Francophones find their way around the government francization offer.

“There are still many people who do not access it because they cannot understand how it works and how to get clear information”, testifies Stéphanie Arsenault, professor of social sciences at Laval University, who conducted research on temporary foreign workers (TFWs) and asylum seekers. “The ticket office, in principle, if it simplified access to all the programs, that would be great! »

The creation of a “unified window” had also been designated as an element to be developed by the Auditor General (AG) in his devastating audit on the francization of immigrants, in 2017.

“The information is disseminated on the websites of each ministry and each school board, as well as on the Portail Québec site of Services Québec, most of the time without any link between them”, noted the feasibility study produced on Next year. This report also reported “complex information for a client who speaks little French”, and a “duplication” of administrative processes and tasks.

“By becoming the single point of access, Francisation Québec will compile a francization file [qui] will bring together all the information relating to a client’s francization – for example, their requests, their training, their documents filed or received, access to their activity log and their allowances,” says Ms.^me Blouin.

Questions about this counter project were asked at a recent meeting of Quebec City immigration stakeholders, but MIFI officials did not provide answers, says Professor Arsenault.

“On the pitch, there seems to be a lot more doubt than confidence that it’s going to take shape, because it’s been talked about for so long…”

The name “Francization Québec” has already been taken

When you type the expression “Francisation Québec” in a search engine like Google, the domain name francisationquebec. com appears very high in the results. This web page, just like francisationquebec. ca, refers to the Clic Montérégie language school website. Asked about its intention to recover this domain name, the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) did not comment.

“For the MIFI, the important thing is that the person finds the right services and that the information is complete, simple and consistent,” replied the spokesperson for the Ministry, Marie-Hélène Blouin, by email.

Clic Montérégie received a call from MIFI in the fall, “but nothing more,” says the owner of the company. “We are supposed to talk to each other again at the beginning of the year,” said Patrick Fortin in a telephone interview.

The entrepreneur says he bought these domain names to promote his business francization services in the summer of 2020, without knowing that “Francization Québec” would be in Bill 96.

Quebec would not be obliged to buy back these domain names, believes consultant and author Michelle Blanc, an internet marketing specialist.

“I would find other avenues. When you speak another language, what are you looking for, and how? Are you going to look for “francization” when you don’t even know this word? raise M^me White. Ideally, you do keyword research: there are tools that allow you to see what people are really looking for. »

Currently, when you type “learn French” into a search engine, the first link that appears leads to a page on the Quebec site. ca “which allows you to have all the details of the government offer in francization”, argues M^me Blouin.

“This site will be enhanced when Francisation Québec comes into force to lead to the single point of access for people wishing to receive French learning services. »

Precision :
The owner of Clic Montérégie is Patrick Fortin, not Bernard Fortin as mentioned in an earlier version of this article.