Opposition denounces CAQ's “failure” in francization

Photo: Francis Vachon Le Devoir «On a un gouvernement qui dit: “Nous, on va sauver la langue française.” Mais quand vient le temps de mettre l’argent au bon endroit pour aider à la francisation, ça ne fonctionne pas», a déploré le libéral André A. Morin.

The delays that are piling up at Francisation Québec are further proof of the “failure” of François Legault’s government to integrate immigrants, according to the opposition parties in the National Assembly.

“I find it absolutely, absolutely distressing,” said Liberal immigration critic André A. Morin, when asked about new data published in Le Devoir on Wednesday. The data reveals that the average time to obtain a francization course increased to 81 working days in the summer, almost twice what it was on average during the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

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“If we want to integrate into Quebec, we have to speak French. And we have a government that says: 'We are going to save the French language.'” But when it comes to putting the money in the right place to help with francization, it doesn’t work,” lamented the Quebec Liberal Party MNA.

Called Wednesday to respond to the new statistics from the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, the office of CAQ Minister Jean-François Roberge was unable to answer us.

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In a written statement sent to Devoir, the spokesperson for francisation for solidarity, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, denounced the Legault government's inability to maintain the service offer in Quebec.

“More and more newcomers are asking to learn French, and that's a good thing, but in the meantime, the CAQ [Coalition avenir Québec] is failing to offer them these services and, even worse, it is cutting back on francization, as demonstrated by the closure of classes in Estrie, Laval and across Quebec,” he said.

Classes closed due to lack of budget

According to various reports published in Le Devoir and elsewhere, a series of francization classes have closed in recent weeks, with those responsible claiming that they do not have sufficient budgets for their survival.

At the end of September, students were informed that the Eastern Townships School Board’s francization program was preparing to close its doors. A month earlier, we reported repeated course cancellations in Montreal’s northern suburbs.

“Francisation budgets have indeed been cut in centres that have experience and expertise throughout Quebec,” noted Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis, according to whom the creation of Francisation Québec (FQ) was nothing more than a “structural reshuffle.”

“The government is channeling francization requests into [a system] that generates paperwork and delays. “The French language centres that were forced to lay off teachers must even devote more resources to managing the FQ paperwork,” he said on the social network X.

Since “there are no savings to be made on the protection of French,” Guillaume Cliche-Rivard is encouraging the CAQ government to “present an action plan [to] reopen the classes it closed.” “Minister Roberge must pull himself together,” he said.

The Liberal Party, for its part, reiterates the need to create “an integrated planning office” for immigration. “We must provide the means so that Francisation Québec is able to achieve results,” said Mr. Morin.