The French-speaking bastions of Ottawa are shaking, but they are not giving in. The effects of immigration and the expansion of bilingual services in the municipality on the consolidation of French do not achieve consensus among experts, who believe that efforts remain to be made for the federal capital to be truly bilingual.
“It’s always worrying to see that French is in decline,” says the general director of the Association of Francophone Communities of Ottawa (ACFO-Ottawa), Diego Elizondo, who emphasizes that a “strong minority” French-speaking remains in the is from the city.
According to the latest Statistics Canada census, French is the first official language spoken by 14.9% of Ottawa’s population. But the demographic weight of French speakers decreased by 1.1 percentage points in the federal capital between 2016 and 2021.
That said, “the overall figures for Ottawa do not give a [bonne] image of the reality of French” in the city, estimates Anne Gilbert, professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Ottawa. If the map remains white west of the Rideau River, it is tinted powder blue east of it. In Vanier and Orléans, native French speakers represented, in 2021, 30 to 50% of the inhabitants. “These are truly bilingual environments, where there is a one in two chance that our neighbor is also a French speaker. This is much less of a minority than what the overall statistics mean,” says M.me Gilbert.
“It is not a free fall as we might have feared, but it is very fragile,” believes Mr. Elizondo, who speaks of “status quo”. “The corollary is that there is no progress. »
According to Mme Gilbert, there has been no “major change” since 2016. She emphasizes, however, that the lower town is “transforming a lot”. Over the last ten years, tall buildings have replaced small houses, and they now attract “a very particular fauna”, far from family life. English-speaking students and retirees settled there, gradually replacing “the generation that had made lower town Ottawa a French place to live.”
“Symbolic” bilingualism
In 2001, the City “reaffirmed its commitment to offering […] services in French and English” by renewing its bilingualism policy adopted in 1970. The municipality was then designated officially bilingual by the provincial government in 2017.
A legislative change more “symbolic” than anything else, according to former Ottawa city councilor Mathieu Fleury, who was part of the Movement for an officially bilingual capital of Canada. ” One says [que la Ville d’Ottawa est] officially bilingual. But what is defined as officially bilingual? This refers to the French language services policy, which has not been adjusted since 2001.
Contacted by The dutyOttawa’s manager of French language services, Michèle Rochette, wrote that the City “recognizes the contributions of the French-speaking community” and is “proud to [son] bilingual character. However, she did not indicate to Duty if the municipality was open to a review of its policy, as demanded by ACFO-Ottawa.
Vain efforts in the west?
Ottawa’s population tends to move to the suburbs. And for French-speakers, the reflex has always been to turn east, “towards Montreal,” explains M.me Gilbert, drawing a “fairly clear border” with western Ottawa.
In twenty years, progress has been made to open schools and establish services in French in this center of the city. A necessary “effervescence” for French-speakers “who were very poorly served,” recognizes Mr. Elizondo. But even if they respond to a real demand, these projects have “not created a strong concentration”, deplores Mme Gilbert. “When we scatter resources, the problem is that we don’t do enough anywhere, instead of doing a lot somewhere. »
Mr. Fleury, of a contrary opinion, judges that “the Francophonie is everywhere in the territory” and that “it is up to the City to adjust its level of services”.
Immigration is not enough
Like the federal government, the “French-speaking community in Ottawa is banking heavily on immigration” to restore its demographic weight, notes Mme Gilbert. But if it is certainly “an asset”, it is not enough to “reduce the impact of English-speaking immigration”, she says, noting that more immigrants “rally around English” once on the territory.
“There are other people arriving in the neighborhoods, who are settling in, but there is not a trend towards the opposite, where Francophones are increasing. They are barely holding on,” adds Mr. Elizondo.
Mr. Fleury believes that it is the statistics, by poorly reflecting all the languages that new arrivals can speak, which “weaken the Francophonie”.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.