Question Period Note: Support for English-Speaking Quebec Communities

According to her mandate letter of December 2021, the Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is called upon to "Protect the institutions of the English-speaking minority community and support the creation of new education and community spaces for the community”.

• The Government of Canada is committed to preserving and promoting the vitality of the country's two major official language communities. The Government of Canada remains committed to Quebec's English-speaking communities.
• Our Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028 includes a series of measures and specific investments to support the vitality of English-speaking communities in Quebec.
• Moreover, Bill C-13 does not take away any rights from the English-speaking community of Quebec. Rather, it provides for a series of legislative measures to recognize their specific needs and their historical and cultural contributions to Canadian society, and to strengthen positive measures in support of their vitality.

• The Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028: Protection-Promotion-Collaboration (2023-2028 Action Plan) includes a series of measures that could result in direct benefits for Quebec's English-speaking communities. This financial support will be defined pursuant to collaborative efforts with the Government of Quebec related to minority language education and services, as well as support for community organizations working to enhance the vitality of these communities.
• In the context of the Cross Canada Official Languages Consultations 2022, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) submitted to the Minister of Official Languages a letter and memoire stating their main priorities ahead of the next Action Plan for Official Languages.
• In keeping with the six guiding principles of the reform document, English and French: Towards Substantive Equality of Official Languages in Canada, the QCGN has presented a detailed report of its expectations for the 2023-2028 Action Plan, which is structured around three priorities: access to services; economic prosperity; and identity and renewal.
• For the fiscal year 2020-2021, the government of Canada has invested in Québec through the Action Plan for Official Languages - 2018-2023: Investing in our Future, a total of nearly $82 million in Quebec for activities that support, among other things, the development of the English-speaking community.
• Bill C-13 builds on the key measures of the previous version of the bill and goes even further. The bill provides for the benefit of English-speaking communities, including:
o Acknowledgement in the preamble of the text of the Act that the federal government is committed to enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities and supporting their development, taking into account their unique and plural character and their historical and cultural contributions to Canadian society.
o The purpose of the Act would recognize that English and French linguistic minorities have different needs.
o Substantial enhancements to Part VII of the Act to address positive measures, thereby strengthening support for official language minority communities, including English-speaking communities in Quebec.
o A commitment by the federal government to strengthen opportunities for Anglophone and Francophone minorities to pursue quality learning in their own language throughout their lives as a positive measure.
o A commitment to support sectors essential to the vitality of English and French linguistic minorities and to protect and promote the presence of strong institutions that serve these minorities as a positive measure.
o A commitment to work with provincial and territorial governments and institutions to provide services in English and French to respect constitutional guarantees of minority language education rights and to facilitate English and French language learning for all.
• On June 6, 2022, a few members of QCGN appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages to discuss their brief entitled Working Together regarding Bill C-13.
• On May 18, QCGN sent its brief regarding Bill C-13 to the official languages Committees of the Senate and the House of Commons. QCGN claims that the Bill C-13 "weakens the federal lifeline of our minority at a time when it is most needed" because of the asymmetry that, according to the QCGN, is introduced into the federal regime with the addition of measures to protect and promote French, including in Quebec.
• Although English is the majority language in North America, the English-speaking community in Quebec is in a minority situation in their province. It is primarily located in the Montreal area but are also found in small communities across the province, in areas such as Pontiac, Lanaudière, Eastern Townships, Gaspésie, Basse-Côte-Nord, l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue, le Nunavik and the Magdalen Islands.
o According to Statistics Canada, from 2016 to 2021, the proportion of Quebec's English-mother-tongue population went from 8.9% to 7.6%.
o However, the proportion of people whose first official language spoken is English rose from 12.0% in 2016 to 13.0% in 2021, at about the same level as in 1981. For the first time since comparable data have been compiled, the number of people in Quebec with English as the first official language spoken topped the 1 million mark in 2021.

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