The government of François Legault finds it hard to understand why the latest federal plan for official languages funds up to $137.5 million for services to English-speaking communities in Quebec.
“I see that there is a lot of money, all the same, which is intended for English-speaking communities in Quebec when we know that […] it is really French that is in danger in Canada,” lamented the Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, the day after Federal Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor tabled the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023- 2028.
The document is based on a budget of $4.1 billion, including $1.3 billion in new investments, and provides $137.5 million for employment assistance, French as a second language and vitality through art and culture” of English-speaking communities. The Department of Canadian Heritage also estimates that this funding could reach 20% of the overall envelope through project requests made through other programs.
A sharing of sums that surprises the office of the Quebec Minister of the French Language. “It seems to me that what would be a good idea would be for the amounts intended for the English-speaking communities to be used for francization,” said Minister Roberge, who is also minister responsible for Canadian Relations, on Thursday.
To support its remarks, the government of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) gave its approval in the morning to a motion of the Parti Québécois (PQ) in the House denouncing “the inadequacy of the new investments of the action plan […] intended for the protection of the French language in Quebec, compared to the sums allocated to the Anglo-Quebec community”. The Liberal Party of Quebec opposed it because one of the paragraphs of the motion “referred to a notion of ‘privilege’ which presumes that the presence of English-speaking institutions ‘amply’ guarantees the maintenance of [la] vitality” of the English-speaking minority in Quebec.
“Financing” Anglophones
In Ottawa too, the federal plan on official languages received a shower of criticism on Thursday from the parliamentary wing of the Bloc Québécois. During question period, Bloc Québécois MP for Pointe-de-l’Île, Mario Beaulieu, criticized Justin Trudeau’s government for contributing to the “promotion of English”. “There is nothing in there for French in Quebec,” he thundered in the House of Commons.
“We don’t fund English in Quebec. On the contrary, we are funding the vitality of the English-speaking community in Quebec,” retorted Ms.me Petitpas Taylor.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Official Languages justified the sharing of these funds by recalling that they could be used for the francization of English-speaking Quebecers. “Let’s be clear: we absolutely recognize that the only language that is threatened in Canada is French,” she said.
“We don’t count on Ottawa”
On Thursday, Jean-François Roberge tweeted his intentions to meet his counterpart “in the coming days” to plead that the money should be channeled towards francization measures. He recalled that his office had succeeded in reaching an “agreement” with Ottawa last month on Bill C-13 on official languages.
I will meet the Minister @GinettePT over the next few days to discuss the Federal Action Plan on Official Languages.
The amounts allocated to Anglophone and allophone communities in Quebec must be used for francization. #polqc https://t.co/847qoX5mPA— Jean-F. Roberge (@jfrobergeQc) April 27, 2023
Questioned at the Blue Room by Parti Québécois MP Pascal Bérubé, Mr. Roberge nevertheless stressed that Quebec does not “count[ait] not on the Government of Canada to stop the decline of French”. “We are completely lucid with the fact that several indicators are red,” he said. “We are developing a major government action plan to stop the decline of French. »
In the morning, Pascal Bérubé had thundered against the federal investments which, according to him, give reason to the “lobby of the deputies from the West Island of Montreal of the Liberal Party of Canada”.
” [C’est] 140 million to ensure the vitality of English in Quebec, which is in no way threatened. The only language that is threatened in Quebec is French, and it’s the same thing in the rest of Canada. I can hardly believe that we receive peanuts “, he had hammered in a press room of the parliament.