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.
• Over the past two fiscal years, our Government invested nearly $82 million per year to support the vitality of English-speaking communities of Quebec, as well as the promotion of the two official languages.
• While Bill C-13 aims to better protect French, we are working to achieve real equality between English and French. The bill also includes enhancements that recognize the historical and cultural contributions of both language 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.
• Aligned with the six guiding principles of the white paper, English and French: Towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada, QCGN presented a detailed report on their expectations for the next Action Plan which focused on three priorities: access to services, economic prosperity, and identity and renewal.
• On June 6, 2022, a few members of QCGN, appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages to discuss Bill C-13. In their brief, they set out four strategic concerns:
o The revolutionary change in the purpose of the Official Languages Act (OLA), and the effects this may have on the interpretation of this quasi-constitutional law.
o The references to the Charter of the French Language – which as amended by Bill 96 operates notwithstanding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
o The failure of Bill C-13 to address the well-known accountability challenges surrounding Part VII of the OLA; and
o The historic proposition of creating new language rights in federal legislation for only one official language, initially only in one province.
• On May 18, QCGN sent its brief 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 it believes is being introduced into the federal regime with the addition of measures to protect and promote French, including in Quebec.
• Bill C-13 includes key measures from the previous version of the Bill and goes even further. For example, Part VII includes substantive strengthening to the taking of positive measures, thus reinforcing the support of official language minority communities, including English-speaking communities in Quebec.
• In 2020-2021, through the 2018-2023 Action Plan for Official Languages : Investing in our Future (Action Plan), the Government of Canada invested in Quebec a total amount of nearly $82 million for activities that support the development of the English-speaking community, and that promote bilingualism and second-language learning.
• Thanks to the Action Plan, 22 community organizations in Quebec received a 20 % increase in their annual programming funding, starting in 2018-2019. Key achievements include:
o The English Language Arts Network has partnered with Seniors Action Quebec to launch the project "E-Share: English Seniors Heritage a Reflection of Everyone." This initiative was designed to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the English-speaking elderly population of Quebec. A 36-week program of digital content for autonomous and semi-autonomous seniors living independently or in residence has been created. In addition, the project has provided technical support to many seniors who would otherwise have had difficulty accessing programming.
o Action Plan funding enabled the QCGN to launch a province-wide media campaign aimed at raising awareness among the majority language population of the presence of the English-speaking community in Quebec and its challenges and contributions.
o To date, 16 new organizations received financial support from the program through the Cooperation with the Community Sector subcomponent of the Development of Official-Language Communities Program, an increase of 59 %.
• 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, Eastern Townships, Gaspésie, Basse-Côte-Nord and the Magdalen Islands.
o According to Statistics Canada, from 2011 to 2016, the proportion of Quebec's English-mother-tongue population went from 9.0% to 8.9%, despite a growth of more than 19,000 people during this same period.
o However, the number and proportion of people with English as their first official language spoken has increased. The official language minority grew from 1,058,250 people in 2011 to 1,103,480 in 2016, which represents an increase of 45,230 people. In addition, the relative weight of the official language minority was 13.7% in 2016, compared to 13.5% in 2011.

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