Question Period Notes
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On October 24, 2024, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the Honourable Marc Miller, announced the Immigration Levels Plan 2025-2027, which calls for a reduction in immigration levels while strengthening and promoting the economic prosperity of Francophone communities outside Quebec.
On April 18, 2024, the Standing Committee on Official Languages tabled its report on Optimizing Francophone Immigration to Canada, in which it recommended that the Government of Canada permanently increase funding to French-language post-secondary institutions in minority situations so that they can continue to offer programs of study and services to students.
Negotiations are underway to finalize the next Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction 2024-2025 to 2027-2028 between the governments of Canada and the provinces and territories. The next Protocol will be the multilateral framework from which bilateral agreements will be negotiated with each of the provinces and territories.
Budget 2024, announced on April 16, 2024, includes nearly $68 million in new investments in official languages over a period of up to five years, including $26 million to implement the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages Act.
On July 18, 2024, the Quebec government presented the Directive précisant la nature des situations dans lesquelles le réseau de la santé et des services sociaux entend utiliser une autre langue que le français dans les cas où le permettent les dispositions de la Charte de la langue française. This directive led to a reaction from Quebec's English-speaking communities.
On October 9, 2024, the Commissioner of Official Languages released his supplementary report entitled A shared future: A closer look at our official language minority communities. This report was anticipated and set out in the 2023-2024 Annual Report tabled in May 2024.
The Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028 provides for targeted investments to increase the number of qualified French teachers by strengthening the recruitment and retention of teachers for French-language minority schools and French second-language programs.
A Quebec organization, Droits collectifs Québec, has filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages concerning the Official Languages Act obligations with respect to the translation of Supreme Court decisions. This complaint is based on the absence of versions in both official languages for all Supreme Court decisions that were rendered before the OLA came into force in 1970 and their availability online.
In order to implement some of the new provisions of the Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada’s Official Languages, three regulations must be made. Two of them, the one that will define certain elements of the new regime for Federally regulated private businesses and the one that will provide a framework for the new power of the Commissioner of Official Languages to issue administrative monetary penalties, are being led by Canadian Heritage.
The mandate of Raymond Théberge, Canada's Commissioner for Official Languages, will end on December 31, 2024. He has held this position since 2018, and his seven-year mandate aims to promote linguistic duality and defend the linguistic rights of Canadians.