Question Period Note: Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028

The Government of Canada unveiled the 2023-2028 Action Plan for Official Languages on April 26th, 2023.

• The Government of Canada committed to developing a new Action Plan for Official Languages to address the priorities of Canadians in this area and has done just that.
• Our government is proud to unveil the 2023-2028 Action Plan for Official Languages: Protect - Promote - Collaborate, which provides for an additional investment of $1.4 billion for a historic total of nearly $4.1 billion over five years.
• This Action Plan will articulate our Government's approach to official languages, as it committed to do in its reform document made public in February 2021.

• The Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028: Protection - Promotion - Collaboration (Action Plan) represents an additional investment of $1.4 billion over five years. 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 additional amounts:
1. Francophone immigration: Towards Restoring 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. From Cradle to Rocker : Fostering Lifelong Learning Opportunities ($760.2M): 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 to Support Community Vitality ($645.9M): 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 Action Plans on Official Languages to present Canadians with a series of priorities requiring immediate action.

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