Get involved, they said! There are thousands of immigrants who are responding to the Legault government, which wants to see them massively invest in our French classes. This momentum unfortunately comes up against cruel evidence on the ground: Francisation Québec, its new and dashing project manager in this area, is buckling under the weight of its ambitions. Did we bet on the wrong horse?
Figures and testimonies gathered by reporter Lisa-Marie Gervais in The duty show that the one-stop shop cannot curb this overflow of interest, six months after its launch. Of the 62,000 so-called complete files submitted to it, around 60% of applicants are still waiting for their go to start a course. The processing time for requests, which Minister Christine Fréchette had promised to keep to less than 50 working days, was added up to 25 additional working days as overheating is so severe.
Workers on the ground observe that wait times of several months are indeed legion, some going up to almost seven months, compared to less than two months on average previously, they say. They also deplore delays in the payment of allowances to students of good will, which Quebec denies. They add that file follow-ups are difficult. All these failures lead some of them to conclude that Francisation Québec has paradoxically made access to francization more complex. The question is valid.
On paper, however, Francisation Québec responds directly, and even in a beautiful way, to some of the most virulent criticisms formulated by the Auditor General of Quebec, Guylaine Leclerc, in her devastating 2017 report. Simplifying access to learning French, harmonize and improve the services offered, develop the francization offer in businesses, collect uniform data: all of this holds up and is defended very well.
The Legault government has also not skimped on the sums allocated to this essential mission, which has long been underfunded. When the Coalition Avenir Québec came to power, the budget for francization services was only $94 million. In 2023-2024, it now stands at 218 million. This is a substantial increase.
Despite all this, the machine hiccups, coughs and jams. For what ? The deprivation of expertise is the first factor mentioned. Entirely managed by the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI), Francisation Québec returns the school network to the position of a simple subcontractor. The long field experience of the schools is thus evacuated, with the consequence that the connections have until now proved difficult and the classification evaluations, too often to start from scratch. Nothing to encourage vocations!
Like the rest of the education network, the francization sector is experiencing significant challenges in recruiting teachers. This was true before the creation of the single window, of course. But the recent stormy negotiations between Quebec and its public service and the adoption of the one-stop shop will have done nothing to alleviate the effects of this shortage. There are certainly interventions to be imagined to make these positions more attractive.
Likewise, we must find a way to rethink the balance between these two complementary universes. Everyone has strengths that they could better benefit the other from. Starting with the human experience, in the presence of the school environment, which surpasses in quality and efficiency some of the online mechanisms put in place by the MIFI to save time, but which, ultimately, end up costing everyone because they are so imperfect.
Minister Fréchette does not deny that Francisation Québec is having difficulty finding its cruising speed. However, she refuses to be discouraged. After all, his call for francization is strong and right, as evidenced by the “number of registrations, [qui] exceeds [les] most optimistic scenarios,” she recalls. And then, we grant it, six months is indeed too little to conclude that there has been an irreparable failure.
Anyone who knows the daily life of immigrants knows, however, that the impulse to learn a language does not accommodate time that stretches beyond reason. Settling into a new life requires colossal energy and resources. You have to work quickly, often double or triple, take care of the children, build the nest, take care of your loved ones. In these conditions, it is rarely easy to keep the door open to demanding courses like these for months while waiting for a sesame of which we do not know when it will come.
The Dusted French Language Charter provides that any person domiciled in Quebec has the right to French learning services. Let us not minimize the deleterious effects that too long turbulence at Francisation Quebec could have on the appetite to learn the language of Vigneault.