Anglo numbers increase in QC area, slump in some regions
Peter Black
peterblack@qctonline.com
The English-speaking population of Quebec City has increased by nearly 40 per cent over 20 years, according to a new study by a research group on anglophone issues.
The Quebec English-speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN), centred at Montreal’s Concordia University, analyzing census data, found the “urban agglomeration of Quebec City” saw an increase in the proportion of English speakers from 1.79 per cent in 2001 to 2.53 per cent in 2021, the year of the most recent national census.
The same trend also applies to the city of Lévis, researcher Patrick Donovan said in an email to the QCT.
Donovan said, “Both the proportion and numbers of English speakers have gone up since 2001. As of the 2021 census, there were 14,715 English-speakers (first official language spoken)” in the Quebec City census region. That region encompasses areas outside Quebec City’s municipal jurisdiction, including L’Ancienne-Lorette and Saint- Augustin-de-Desmaures.
“The only part of the Capitale-Nationale region with a (small) proportional decline is the RCM (regional county municipality) of La Jacques- Cartier, which includes Shan- non,” Donovan said, “but that’s probably due to growing francophone suburbs rather than English speakers moving out of Shannon, since the population of that RCM grew consider- ably in the past 20 years, and there’s no numerical decrease of English speakers (only proportional).”
Numbers of English speakers are also growing in Montreal and Gatineau.
Voice of English-speaking Québec (VEQ) executive director Brigitte Wellens said the uptick in anglos in the capital region, a figure she puts at 3,170 people, has had a tangible impact.
“I can say that the increase was felt by the [VEQ] team, particularly in terms of services and activities for newcomers,” Wellens said. “While we have programs and activities for all, it’s a common misconception that we only serve new arrivals.”
Wellens said, “It’s easy to think that because new arrivals represent one quarter of our community, every five years, 20 to 25 per cent of the region’s English-speaking community is renewed by newcomers. In 2021, they represented 24 per cent: 8.2 per cent from interprovincial [arrivals] and 15.8 per cent from all over the planet.”
While the picture is relatively rosy for the anglo population in larger population centres, it’s less so in other regions of Quebec.
The QUESCREN analysis found “a more complex portrait emerges when examining other parts of Quebec and longer time periods. The 20th century was marked by a decline in the proportion of English speakers in most Quebec regions. The trend has shifted in the past 20 years, yet a notable decline continues in parts of coastal Quebec, the Eastern Town- ships and Rouyn-Noranda.”
The most drastic dip in anglo numbers was in the census division of Minganie–Le-Golfe- du-Saint-Laurent, which con- tains a string of mostly English-speaking coastal villages known as the Lower North Shore. The drop was 20 per cent between 2001 and 2021
Other areas with significant losses in the same time period were the Avignon RCM on the south shore of the Gaspé Peninsula (-18.9 per cent); Rocher- Percé RCM, which includes Chandler and Percé (-7 per cent); and La Cote-de-Gaspé, including the town of Gaspé (-7.2 per cent). The Magdalen Islands lost 6.7 per cent.
QUESCREN notes that “the French-speaking populations in the Gaspé and parts of the Lower North Shore also declined in broadly comparable percentages, but not in the Magdalen Islands.”
The study made an overall conclusion about the changes in Quebec’s anglo population. “The 1970s saw a noticeable exodus of English speakers from the province as a whole, propelled by economic shifts favouring Toronto, as well as political changes in Quebec.
“Language laws promoting French as the common public language of Quebec prompted many English speakers to leave. A total of 198,274 mother tongue English speakers left between 1971 and 1986. Those who stayed were more likely to be bilingual and to participate in francophone Quebec culture.”
The study noted, “The English-speaking population in Quebec is no longer facing the sharp declines it faced in the century before the 1980s. Indeed, recent years have seen the number of English speakers grow overall in the province, particularly in Montreal.
“That said,” the report concludes, “English-speaking population numbers have declined in several once thriving communities of the province. Many face aging populations, high unemployment, low income and a lack of job opportunities, all of which are determining factors when considering the health of a society.”