The Quebec government has decided to cut financial assistance for people enrolling in part-time, French-language courses and to spend $2.5 million on a new advertising campaign to encourage Quebecers to speak more French.
Financial support for the care of children or disabled dependents will be maintained and Francisation Québec courses will remain free.
This comes at a time when wait lists are getting longer, according to Carl Ouellet, president of the Association québécoise du personnel de direction des écoles, which represents school principals.
“We’re not able to open other groups because we lack funds. We lack subsidies, and that’s unfortunate because we know it, in recent years, more immigrants have arrived in Quebec,” said Ouellet. “We want workers who speak French.”
He added that training centres and schools are ready to welcome newcomers, but they’re struggling to offer francization services.
Ouellet also worries about staff shortages across the province.
“The labour shortage is going to be exacerbated by the additional difficulty we have in finding people to work in our businesses,” he said, adding that some workplaces look for employees who speak French. “It’s a big problem for our society right now.”
The provincial government has also revised the eligibility conditions for financial assistance for businesses.
Wage compensation for francization in the workplace will now be dedicated to help businesses with a workforce in Quebec of fewer than 100 employees.
New campaign to promote French
A broad campaign of TV, radio, and print ads will unfold over the next ten weeks — with some print ads in English and the rest in French.
The ads show different people like a worker in a coffee shop, a store clerk and a taxi driver saying “bonjour,” instead of “bonjour/hi,” — a bilingual greeting that has been a subject of controversy for years and continues to infuriate many Quebecers, including politicians.
While the Quebec government is cutting funding to assist people in taking French courses, it’s launching an ad campaign about Quebecers’ collective responsibility to protect and promote the language.
French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said Quebecers have a collective responsibility to speak French and to insist on being spoken to in French.
“French, a proud and strong language, will regain ground, will take its place,” he said of the message behind the phrases that will be displayed on the Bell Centre boards, in an interview with Radio-Canada.
He says this campaign alone will not be enough to reverse the decline of the French language.
“Don’t think we’re putting all our eggs in the campaign. The campaign complements concerted government initiatives to finally reverse the decline of French language,” said Roberge, referring to the government’s $603 million investment in preserving the language.
His office didn’t respond to CBC’s request for comment.
Ouellet considers the new initiative to be “paradoxical.”
“He’s in the know. He’s the former Minister of Education, so he knows what’s going on with the francization file,” he said. “We don’t play politics. We’re here to provide services to the community, to the people who come to our centres. It’s unfortunate to see that in the media this morning.”