Teachers are calling the Quebec government’s decision to launch a $2.5 million advertising campaign to encourage Quebecers to speak more French “a big contradiction” given the recent cuts in funding for French courses.
The CAQ has recently decided to cut financial assistance for people enrolling in part-time, French-language classes, and to scale down its funding for francization courses to match the amounts allocated in 2020-2021.
Olivier Houle, history and new French-language teacher, says these budget cuts do not reflect the important growth in the region’s immigrant population since 2020-2021.
“What’s frustrating is that, the past few months, we’ve been seeing the government using immigrants as a scapegoat for a lot of problems, but the ones that are being penalized are the ones that are already here, that are already trying to contribute to society,” said Houle.
He agrees with the campaign’s message, but says it isn’t the right moment.
“I don’t think these funds, these $2.5 million should’ve been used for that campaign when you’re cutting left and right in the services,” he said. ” For the past eight years, [the CAQ government has] been walking in their contradictions.”
His colleague, Amilie Girard, says finding a good job without speaking French is “really hard.”
“The immigrants, they want to learn French. But if as a Quebecer, I speak French everywhere, as the publicity said, they need to answer me, so they need to learn,” she said, highlighting the message behind the new ad.
Minister defends move
Girard hopes the government will re-invest in French-language courses.
According to the two teachers, the school they work in had nine French-language classes last year, but this year, they’re down to three classes for the rest of the year.
After Jan. 24, they say anyone wishing to learn the province’s official language in the lower Laurentians will have to go further north, as services will no longer be available there.
On Tuesday, French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge� met with reporters at the National Assembly and defended the province’s funding decision. He claims that, ultimately, cutting financial support for part-time French courses will create more classes to teach French to more people.
“We’ve decided to move our resources, to step back with the allocation, and to use this money to open more classes,” he said.
In a written statement, the minister’s office said a record number of people have been “francized” since the launch of Francisation Québec and “demand continues to grow.”
“The sums released will enable us to francize some 15,000 additional people by 2025, and to work on reducing the waiting time to start a French course.”
Despite the funding cuts, financial support for the care of children or disabled dependents will be maintained and Francisation Québec courses will remain free.
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.
Concerns about snowball effect on workforce
The province is rolling back financial assistance for French-language courses at a time when waiting lists to access them 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.
In an interview with Radio-Canada on Monday, the province’s French language minister 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,” Roberge said of the message behind the phrases that will be displayed on the Bell Centre boards, in an interview with Radio-Canada.
He said 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.
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.”