By Zenith Wolfe
The federal government recognized a 10-year plan that aims to develop, work with and improve funding for communities across Canada whose language is a minority in their region.
The Economic Development of Official Languages Minority Communities plan was first presented to parliament in October. The report offers 20 recommendations that would improve the economic conditions of Canada’s Official Language Minority Communities (OLMC), identified in 2023’s Official Languages Act. OLMCs include French communities outside Quebec and English communities in Quebec.
Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director-general of Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), says the plan will help their organization’s mission of connecting and supporting English communities across Quebec. Some recommendations encourage the government to invest in tourism to improve economic development for OLMCs and make French language courses more accessible.
“We’re happy with what the recommendations say, and it’s a fair representation backed by data,” Martin-Laforge says. The report uses 2021 census data to show that unemployment rates for English speakers in Quebec increased to 10.9 per cent, up from 8.9 in 2018. Meanwhile unemployment for French speakers stayed at 6.9 per cent.
Chatel is the Liberal MP for Quebec’s Pontiac riding. She says the fact that this data came from the 2021 census report shows the need for more consistent studies on the economic status of OLMCs. She highlights one recommendation that urges the government to collect data in monthly Labour Force Surveys.
Chatel says the recommendation that ministers outside the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages consider OLMCs when making grant decisions is a productive “holistic” approach. She also says she supports the recommendations to remove language barriers for funding, encourage collaborations between the English-speaking communities and governments and invest more in tourism.
“One of the growing sectors in the MRC Pontiac and des Collines is tourism. There’s growth potential,” she says. Chatel adds that the recommendation will help support music festivals like Pontiac Enchanté, which features English concerts.
Mario Beaulieu, the Bloc Québécois MP for Quebec’s La Pointe-de-l’Île riding, wrote a dissenting opinion for the development plan.
“Some of the report’s recommendations violate the letter and spirit of Quebec’s Bill 101 and disregard constitutional jurisdiction,” he writes.
Chatel says she isn’t aware of MP Beaulieu’s statement, but she says she found nothing unconstitutional in the report.
Martin-Laforge says the dissenting opinion is part of Bloc Québécois’s broader stance that English-speaking communities in Quebec are not OLMCs and don’t need financial support. She says it’s a “myth”, which has delayed the inclusion of English-speaking communities in past action plans.
“In 2002 when the first action plan came out, Official Languages programming was seen mostly as a remedy for francophones outside Quebec. Policy changes and provincial legislative changes have negatively affected our communities’ access to services, programs and funding,” she says, citing Bill 96 as one of these changes.
Raymond Théberge, Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada, says in an email statement that “there seems to be confusion between the majority status of the English language in Canada and the minority status of the English-speaking communities in Quebec.” He writes that these communities show signs of “socio-economic vulnerability” despite the misconception that they’re a “privileged elite.”
MP Beaulieu did not respond to a request for comment.