A federal report reveals that the cabinet will not achieve its goals of increasing the use of French in Canada, even with spending billions of dollars in promotions. . French language textbook .“Worrisome demographic trends” see bilingualism rates decline over time, it said..“Initiatives are not sufficient to contribute to some expected long-term outcomes,” said the department of Canadian Heritage report. .“Notably, the contribution of Francophone immigration is not sufficient to increase the demographic weight of francophones outside Québec.”.Census data show the proportion of Francophones outside Québec since 2011 has decreased from 3.8% to 3.5%. .Statistics Canada projects a continued decline to 2.7% by 2036. The report said a federal Action Plan budgeted at more than $2 billion has not curbed the trend..“The funding for the Action Plan does not live up to its objectives, particularly that of increasing the rate of bilingualism of Canadians,” said the report, Horizontal Evaluation of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023. .“Data from StatsCan indicate a decrease in the relative weight of Francophones in the country. In addition, there was a slow increase in the rate of bilingualism among English-speaking Canadians outside Québec.”.According to an official estimate, successive cabinets have spent $7.7 billion on language programs since 2004..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, subsidies were intended to increase bilingualism rates and keep French-language communities at 4% of the population outside Québec..On June 16, Languages Commissioner Raymond Théberge testified at the Commons Languages committee, stating that immigration from former French colonies in Africa, such as Mali and Ivory Coast, is necessary to preserve the French language in Canada..“We need to recruit where there are pools of French speakers,” testified Théberge..“Francophone immigration is crucial to development of our official languages communities. Statistically speaking, the relative demographic weight of Francophones is declining.”.“We need to ensure we recruit immigrants where there are significant Francophone populations,” testified Théberge. .“In the past, I think we were focusing in some European regions, but it is clear the future of French is found in Africa.”.According to federal government data, most people who immigrate to Canada are from India, China and the Philippines..“I understand the Department of Immigration is focusing on Cameroon, but as a former director of the University of Moncton, we had many students who came from Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal,” said Théberge.
