quebec invests $10 million to reopen francization classes
immigration, francization and integration minister jean-françois roberge said the magnitude of the demand has forced quebec to act.
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quebec — under intense pressure to take action, the legault government thursday decided to hand $10 million to quebec’s school service centres and school boards to reopen francization classes, many of which had been closed because they were short of funds. the announcement was made by immigration, francization and integration minister jean-françois roberge, who told reporters the funds will allow 5,000 more students to have access to french courses by march 31.
after weeks of saying there was no additional money, and blaming school service centres and boards for having exhausted their annual funding too soon, roberge said the magnitude of the demand for such services has forced quebec to act.
the money is not new, but has been reallocated from funding destined for part-time courses, a program the government has scaled back. roberge insisted it was always the government’s intention to use those funds to pay for full-time courses for new arrivals to quebec.
he again steered the blame for loss of services — which the opposition parties called a fiasco and an example of bad government planning — back on the shoulders of the education network.
“certain school service centres were teaching french very, very, very intensely in the first months of the year and they ran short (of funds) to end the year, so we are correcting this,” roberge told reporters at the legislature.
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he reminded them as well that “quebec’s capacity to pay is not infinite.”
“deepening the deficit to francize more is out of the question,” he said. “what we want to do in reality is reduce the demand. we are going to reduce the number of immigrants on the quebec territory.
“this year we will break records (in the number of people being taught french). there are people who deplore cuts in francization, but we have never invested more in money terms or opened more (teaching) groups.”
roberge insisted thursday’s move was not a reaction to an advisory from french language commissioner benoît dubreuil, issued wednesday in response to widespread concerns about the loss of the courses.
dubreuil said he was “concerned about the repercussions on services to students,” especially in regions where there are no francization options except those offered by school service centres.
“this was planned since september,” roberge said. “we had to do all the accounting operations and establishing how much financial leeway we could get in the short term.”
he insisted this year’s problems will not reoccur.
“next year, this won’t happen,” roberge said. “i am making a formal commitment.”
the number of people participating in french courses more than doubled between 2023 and 2024, to the point that francisation québec and the school service centres and boards could not keep up.
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with the government being forced to scale back the initiative, classes were closed. the group collectif francisation estimated 11,000 students lost access to courses, while hundreds of teachers were laid off. there were protests by immigrants who felt let down by the government despite their efforts to learn french.
on thursday, the opposition parties described the government’s decision to inject new money as a partial victory.
“after months of denying the problem existed, now the caq has listened to reason and increased the spending in school service centres as we asked,” said québec solidaire immigration critic guillaume cliche-rivard.
qs noted, however, that the 5,000 additional students gaining access to courses represent only half of the needed total.
“ten million (dollars) is like a band-aid on a gaping wound,” said parti québécois mna pascal paradis as he lobbed questions at roberge during question period.
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