Opposition calls for an “emergency unit” in French-language education

Photo: Olivier Zuida Archives Le Devoir The CSS have been reducing their course offerings since the Ministry of Immigration revised its budgetary rules.

Isabelle Porter

Published at 12:56 PM Updated at 3:54 PM

• Québec

Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge must quickly correct the situation in francization, argue the opposition parties in the National Assembly, while a new school service center is planning reductions in the course offering.

“Although the government is trying to hide it, these are indeed cuts,” denounced PQ MNA Pascal Paradis on Thursday. “The government is abruptly eliminating francization in centres that have proven themselves and that contribute to the integration of immigrants.”

Mr. Paradis was reacting to the announcement of new closures of adult francization courses in Estrie, Montérégie and at the Centre de services scolaire (CSS) Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Montreal.

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The CSSs have been reducing their offerings since the Ministry of Immigration reviewed its budgetary rules. Rather than funding francization based on the cohorts of the two previous years, as he usually did, he announced to them in May that he would instead base it on the number of students counted in 2020-2021.

In this context, the Parti Québécois is urging the government to maintain the 2023-2024 budgets in the CSS.

The Liberal Party considers the situation “absurd.” MNA André A. Morin points out that the CSS Marguerite-Bourgeoys is in his riding. The government is “running the chainsaw” on francization, he says. “For a CSS like theirs, it has a very significant impact.” The MNA is calling for the creation of an “emergency unit” to correct the problem.

Finally, for Québec solidaire, Minister Roberge must explain himself and hurry up to reopen the classes. “The CAQ's austerity will prevent how many people from learning French ? There are no savings to be made on protecting the language,” responded MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard in writing.

Relaunched by Le Devoir, Minister Roberge’s office declined to comment. The day before, he also did not respond to another article on waiting times at Francisation Québec.

Read also

• Opposition denounces CAQ’s “failure” in francization
• Francization offerings shrink in Montreal, Granby and Sherbrooke

Uncertainty in Thetford Mines

Last year at this time, the CSS Marguerite-Bourgeoys welcomed 19 new groups in francisation, the equivalent of 260 students. This year, it will not take any in order to preserve the training of students from previous sessions.

In addition, a new case of CSS in difficulty, that of Appalaches, was added to the list on Thursday. The Centre d’éducation des adultes l’Escale, in Thetford Mines, would thus be obliged to reduce its offer of courses in French by 63%, according to what the Courrier Frontenac.

Relaunched by Le Devoir, the CSS des Appalaches responded that a meeting on this subject was planned for Friday. “Decisions will then be communicated,” indicated the spokesperson for the organization.