Question Period Note: Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028: Protection – Promotion - Collaboration

The Government of Canada unveiled its Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028 on April 26th, 2023 and is working to implement its initiatives.

• Since unveiling our new Action Plan for Official Languages, we have been working hard to implement all of its initiatives.
• Let’s remember that, the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028: Protection - Promotion - Collaboration, provides new investments of $1.4 billion, for a historic total of nearly $4.1 billion over five years for official languages.
• More specifically, Action Plan 2023-2028 represents $137.2 million for francophone immigration, $ 763.8 million for better access to lifelong learning in the first or second official language, $465.9 million to support community vitality, and $22.1 million to strengthen collaboration with communities and improve access to data.

• The Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028: Protection - Promotion - Collaboration (Action Plan) represents an additional investment of $1.4 billion over five years for official languages. This is in addition to some $2.7 billion in cumulative historical funding and $155.6 million in term funding over the five years. This brings the cumulative total of federal support for official languages for the period 2023-2028 to close to $4.1 billion.
• The Action Plan focuses on 4 intervention pillars, each with associated funding amounts:
1. Francophone Immigration: Towards Re-establishing the Demographic Weight of Francophones ($137.2M): To address the demographic and economic challenges facing Francophone minority communities, this Action Plan includes $137.2 million to implement 7 initiatives that will put forward a series of measures in support of the immigration continuum: from the promotion of Francophone minority communities, to overseas recruitment, to the successful integration of newly arrived individuals.
2. Promoting Lifelong Learning Opportunities ($763.8M): In collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, this investment will enable Canadians to develop their first official language skills as part of a comprehensive educational pathway and to have the opportunity to learn and appreciate their second official language. The investment includes 9 programs and initiatives that will strengthen the educational continuum to address labour shortages, including the recruitment and retention of French-language and French-second-language teachers.
3. Strong Measures in Support of Community Vitality ($465.9M): Under this pillar, investments will focus on approximately 14 programs or initiatives, which will seek to strengthen the capacity of community organizations to respond to emerging needs and departmental priorities, such as improving opportunities for youth, access to arts and culture, and early childhood care sectors to improve access to quality programs and services.
4. Leading by Example: Acting and Collaborating to Strengthen Communities ($22.1M): This pillar includes funding for two initiatives: the creation of a Center for Strengthening Part VII of the Official Languages Act to support horizontal coordination of official languages and to help make data on the estimated number of children eligible for minority language education available.
• Among other things, these investments aim to achieve major societal objectives:
o Foster the demographic growth of Francophone minority communities;
o Slow the erosion of French in Canada;
o Provide more opportunities for lifelong learning and appreciation of the minority language and second language;
o Strengthen government leadership and ensure greater compliance by federal institutions in their implementation of the Official Languages Act.
• For the past 20 years, the Government of Canada has used successive five-year strategies on Official Languages to present its priorities requiring immediate action to Canadians.

None