Tougher language laws sought

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This article was published 02/04/2018 (2749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Advocates for French-speaking Manitobans are calling for tougher federal language laws, while praising the Liberals for promising to spend more money on official languages.

The Liberals unveiled their plan for supporting official languages Wednesday. Over five years, they’ll spend another $500 million on top of $2.2 billion already earmarked for French outside Quebec and English within that province.

The funding will largely be devoted to grants for local groups, instead of programming typically run by public servants.

Liberal MP Dan Vandal, who represents St. Boniface and St. Vital, says the funding will bolster French-language daycare and immigration programs, two areas mentioned numerous times when both the House and Senate committees on official languages visited Winnipeg last month.

“It’s not money that’s going to be used to hire more bureaucrats here in Ottawa. It’s money that’s going to the communities so they can drive their initiatives,” Vandal said after officials gave him an in-depth briefing.

“I’m glad that we finally delivered on this.”

The plan includes $20 million over five years for French-language daycare spaces in English Canada. It also sets a target to boost francophone immigration outside Quebec by 4.4 per cent by 2023, and provided $40.8 million for that goal.

Multiple witnesses discussed those two issues at both committees, saying they feared children and immigrants in Manitoba would assimilate into English-speaking society if there weren’t adequate supports for learning French early in life, and using it upon arrival in Canada.

Brigitte L’heureux, executive director of the Fédération des Parents du Manitoba, told parliamentarians that French daycares in the province are in crisis, with roughly 550 children enrolled and another 800 names on waiting lists.

Some 11 of Manitoba’s 21 licensed French-language daycare centres have asked for exemptions to provincial educational standards because they don’t have enough staff with formal certificates to meet demand.

Children have enough supervision, but the staff don’t always have sufficient qualifications.

Manitoba Sen. Raymonde Gagné, the former president of Université de Saint-Boniface, said she’s heard initial praise for the funding, but said she’ll watch closely to see how it’s used.

“It’s reassuring to see that the government has invested significantly in the development of our communities,” she said in a French-language interview. “It bodes well; it’s something the community has asked for, for a long time.”

NDP MP François Choquette, who was part of the committee visit to Winnipeg, said Manitoba needs even more funding to avoid “the extremely worrying” prospect of assimilation.

“There were some funds announced, but there needs to be more action for early childhood (initiatives),” the Quebec MP said.

The federal Tories said the spending needs to be meticulously tracked, so provinces don’t divert the cashto other priorities.

Meanwhile, almost all 27 witnesses at both committees also asked for stronger rules in the Official Language Act.

That could include everything from compulsory bilingualism for Supreme Court judges, to fines for federal departments and agencies that don’t offer services in both languages.

Christian Monnin, president of Société de la francophonie manitobaine, said “weak or toothless accountability mechanisms” need to be replaced with hefty fines, “something that would have a significant monetary impact on the organization.”

Other witnesses asked Ottawa to specifically include minority languages in provincial funding agreements, possibly with quotas.

The Liberals have started doing so on their own accord. For example, a daycare funding agreement with Manitoba in February included 250 French-language daycare spots as part of 1,400 new placements.

The Liberals say they’re planning to update the legislation next year when the law turns 50; the first major reform since 1988.

Gagné said it’s crucial Ottawa change the law’s threshold for minority-language services, which requires five per cent of a municipality to speak the non-majority language in order to have federal services offered.

“We want the law to really permit the community to thrive, and not just to survive,” Gagné said.

She said the five-per-cent rule can trigger a domino effect, where a community with a temporary drop in French-speakers then loses a base of bureaucrats who live in French, putting the school and community centre at risk.

“How do we measure the vitality? We need to go beyond the statistics,” she said, arguing the number doesn’t account for people who are trying to learn French, nor the effect of wider demographic trends.

Louis Tétrault, head of the Association des municipalités bilingues du Manitoba, elaborated on that issue at the Senate committee.

He said there’s been a perplexing trend where the number of francophones continues to grow in the province, but they’re outpaced by general population growth, thus reducing their four per cent share of the population.

He gave the example of La Broquerie, the fastest-growing rural municipality in Manitoba. From 1996 to 2016, the number of francophones increased by 50 per cent, but their share of its population dropped to 14 per cent from 34 per cent.

Tétrault noted this issue has been exacerbated by municipal mergers in which francophones make up half of a village that gets merged into a town.

Manitoba’s Francophone Affairs Minister Rochelle Squires also appeared at the Senate committee and endorsed calls to change the federal quota system.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca