The latest figures from the 2021 census have reason to fear the accentuated minorization of the Francophone community in Ontario. Although the number of Francophones remains relatively stable, the proportion of Francophones (First Official Language Spoken), compared to the general population, is only decreasing, from 3.8% in 2016 to 3.4% in 2021 — this which represents the largest decline since 2001.
To this end, several signs already point to a reconfiguration of the Canadian language system. While we are still dithering over the need to strengthen French within the Official Languages Act, no consistent policy has been put in place in immigration.
We are still struggling to issue visas to French-speaking students interested in coming to stay in the country. There are no tough measures to regulate and promote francophone immigration outside Quebec. No plan has been made to attract them, as evidenced by the statistics on the origin of new immigrants (2016-2021).
The latest census tells us that 80.6% of immigrants “choose” English as their first official language spoken. But to what extent is this choice not predictable when we see that no effort has been made by the government to reach a quarter of the minimum threshold for international Francophone immigration desired by the Fédération des Communautés Francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA) and several other players in the French-speaking world in Canada? This significant drop in the proportion of Francophones compared to the general population in Ontario must be analyzed for what it is: the result of a failed policy by the federal and provincial authorities.
While the census clearly shows that Francophones are aging and that this is one of the factors explaining the decline in their demographic weight in Canada, this trend is not new. It has been observable for decades, and Minister Dion’s plan (2003) already sought to counter its effects.
Unfortunately, the latest data show, on the contrary, that the attractiveness of French is declining everywhere in Canada. Where this language is a minority, French tends more and more to be perceived only as a language of communication, a tool, and less and less as a cultural vector, in Ontario in particular.
If we still had to be convinced, we can perceive in the results of this census the exit from the regime of traditional linguistic duality (English-French) and the full entry into a pluralist regime where French (outside Quebec ) seems more and more than one language among others.
Only 1.3% of Ontario households speak French regularly at home; only 1.9% speak French and English equally. And 0.1% of households regularly speak French and a third language, compared to 18.8% English and a third language. A slow but profound shift is taking place from French to English and other languages (which now represent 8% of the languages spoken regularly at home).
The French language and its Francophone cultures thus seem increasingly disconnected from each other and find it increasingly difficult to incarnate themselves in concrete environments. This has the effect of weakening the transmission of French and the strength of its French-speaking institutions, particularly schools (from early childhood to university). Need we recall the devastation of the French fact at Laurentian University?
Do these statistics not reflect the real place that we wish to give to French in the Canadian space? A place that is unfortunately increasingly symbolic and bears witness, on the one hand, to the demands of an Anglo-dominant labor market and, on the other, to the federal government’s lack of political will to ensure the sustainability and development of French-speaking communities in the country. Now is the time for bold solutions.