Question Period Note: French Immersion and Second Language Learning

Budget 2023, announced on March 28, 2023, provides $679.2 million in funding over five years to support, among other things, access to second-language learning opportunities, by working with the provinces and territories.

• Canadians of all ages and backgrounds demand more opportunities to learn their second official language. So much so that it is difficult for governments to meet the demands of parents who are massively seeking to enroll their children in immersion classes.
• That is why our Government is proud to be investing
$679.2 million over five years to support, notably, access to second-language learning opportunities, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments.
• We will continue to work with provinces and territories to help them meet the strong demand for spaces in French immersion and French second-language programs.

• Budget 2023 proposes funding of $679.2 million over five years, beginning in 2023-2024, for the Department of Canadian Heritage to support equal access to education services of equal quality by working with provinces and territories to facilitate access to quality minority-language education, second-language learning opportunities and bilingual government services across Canada.
• The mandate letter of the Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency made public December 16, 2021, states the commitment to: "Make new investments to improve access to French immersion and French second-language programs across the country".
• As a reminder, the 2021 Budget proposed to provide:
o $180.4 million over three years, beginning in 2021-2022 to Canadian Heritage to help students across the country achieve higher levels of bilingualism. This funding is aimed at 1) enhancing French immersion and French second language programs at all levels of education, from preschool to post-secondary 2) helping provinces and territories meet the high demand from students and parents for French immersion and French second language spaces, 3) strengthening the strategy in place for the recruitment and retention of teachers, and 4) supporting the learning of French from an early age.
o $121.3 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, to Canadian Heritage to provide quality post-secondary education in the minority language in Canada.
o $81.8 million over two years, starting in 2021-2022, to Canadian Heritage to support the construction, renovation and development of educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities.
• For the Government of Canada, being able to offer Canadians the opportunity to learn their second official language represents equality of opportunity and realizing the vision of a bilingual Canada.
• In March 2021, the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages announced a number of initiatives to address the shortage of teachers in French-language minority schools, as well as French immersion and French second-language programs across the country. The new funds from Budget 2021 will also help address this gap.
• In February 2021, the Official Languages Act reform document, entitled English and French: Towards Substantive Equality of Official Languages in Canada, affirmed the desire to provide opportunities to learn both official languages, as "the demand for access to French immersion programs has clearly exceeded supply in recent years, [and] year after year, parents show their enthusiasm by enrolling their children in French immersion schools despite the lack of spaces in the school system."
• The Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction 2019-2023 between the Government of Canada and the provinces and territories is a multilateral framework which sets out the broad parameters for cooperation between the two levels of government in the area of official languages in education, and provides a mechanism by which the Government of Canada contributes to the costs incurred by the provinces and territories for minority language and second language education. Under the parameters of the Protocol, each province and territory must negotiate a bilateral agreement tailored to its priorities in order to obtain federal funding. Although it subscribes to the general principles of the Protocol, the Government of Quebec is not a signatory.
• Under the current bilateral education agreements, the Government of Canada provides $235.5 million per year to the provinces and territories ($149.1 million for minority-language education and $86.4 million for second-language instruction).

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