Achi news desk-
The government of the Avner Quebec Coalition (CAQ) has announced that it will invest $603 million over five years to protect the French language. There’s money to help temporary immigrants learn French and a push for more French content on streaming platforms like Netflix.
Quebec’s minister responsible for the French language, Jean-François Roberge, spoke with CTV News Montreal anchor Maya Johnson about the government’s plans for the money.
Some questions and answers have been edited for grammar. Watch the full interview above.
Maya Johnson
It’s not every day you have six ministers together on a Sunday morning. Yesterday you released this announcement to reveal an action plan. So it seems that with the number of ministers coming out to announce this plan, it is clear that your government wants to send a strong message. However, the PQ calls it a PR exercise. So I’m curious, how do you see it? Is the CAQ better than the PQ to defend French?
Jean Francois Roberge
Well, we don’t think about the PQ and we do our politics. We think what is best for Quebecers, what is best for the French language here in Quebec. We saw that during the last year, many numbers, many statistics that came from the French office de la Lange or from Statistics Canada showed a decline in French. So we decided to join our forces together, six ministers working as a team for 15 months, and we are really proud of what we bring to the table. We have an important plan and I am happy to explain it to you and everyone here in Quebec.
Maya Johnson
I want to address something you said about the statistics. For example, following the OQLF, the OQLF actually released the results of a survey earlier this month showing that the use of French and public spaces remained steady at 79 percent, so that’s a level that hasn’t really changed since 2007. But it appears that instead of using numbers from a government agency in Quebec, You are basing these metrics on different data than Stats Can. Why not use the Quebec government’s own numbers?
Jean Francois Roberge
We use numbers from the Quebec government itself. We had a lot of research coming from the Office de la Langue Francaise. All these studies show the decline of French. It is true that one of the studies said it was like stable, but it showed that we have a problem here in Montreal and we have had a problem for generations. Young people do not use French as much as older Quebecers. Many statistics that come from the Office de la Langue Francaise show that we have a decline in French at work, when we shop online, when we shop here, when we use the digital platform for our series [and] movies, so there’s a lot to do, which is why we came up with this plan: $603 million, 21 metrics. I think it’s clear that we need to do something to stop the decline of French in Quebec.
Maya Johnson
But Mr. Roberge, I guess it’s the numbers you choose to look at or how you choose to interpret them. For example, I do know that there were the bonjour-hi numbers that also came out of the OQLF and showed that yes, it is possible that more people receive greetings or that fewer people receive greetings only in French. But, on the other hand, 98 percent of people can still get service in French if they ask for it. So that’s not a good sign?
Jean Francois Roberge
Well, 98 percent is a good result, but in Quebec, it should be 100 percent, and the fact that we lost 13 percent in 13 years because of the reception in stores with French, it’s like a symptom of the disease of the French language. So it’s important to move on and have a lot of action. The Commissaire à la langue française has come up with four studies in the last year since we created this institution, and all these studies have shown the decline of French. Rise of asylum seekers. The number of asylum seekers is a real problem; It’s not asylum seekers that are the problem, but their numbers are a huge, huge problem here, because a lot of them don’t speak French. This is why we decided to invest 320 million dollars in franchising Quebec, so that we can help them learn French.
Maya Johnson
OK. So everyone can agree that the French language needs to be protected in this North American context. Anglophones will also agree with this. But also, people ask how you can justify spending so much money on language now, when so many Quebecers are concerned about other bread and butter issues like health care, education and housing. People who say ‘I can’t get a family doctor’, ‘There is no teacher for my child’s class’, ‘I can’t find affordable accommodation’. How do you respond to this review; That the priority is in the wrong place?
Jean Francois Roberge
We can do many things. We can do some politics and invest in the housing problem, we can take care of the education problems and we can take care of one of the top priorities here in Quebec, which is also the French language. It’s not because we’re taking action on French that we won’t take action on other issues.
Maya Johnson
OK. Minister Roberg thanks you again for your time today. We appreciate it.
