A French-language policy is long overdue say local advocates.
Despite counting one of the fastest growing francophone populations outside Quebec, according to the 2011 census, Alberta remains one of two provinces without legislative framework governing the provision of French-language services.
But that is about to change. Last month the provincial government began consultations on how to better meet the needs of Alberta’s francophone communities.
Through Culture and Tourism’s French Secretariat, the province is holding a series of targeted sessions with more than 170 francophone leaders from across the province covering areas like education, social services and health care.
LĂ©o Piquette, a French advocate and former NDP MLA for the riding of Athabasca-Redwater, says the move is long overdue.
“There is a lot of reparation to be done,” he said.
Piquette was involved in a 1988 constitutional challenge, dubbed the Piquette Affair, that argued French language rights were protected under Section 110 of the Northwest Territories Act – the act that governed Alberta before it became a province in 1905.
While the Supreme Court ruled that Section 110 was still in force, since it was never repealed, it also held that the Alberta and Saskatchewan legislatures could modify the provinces’ language rights.
This led to Bill 60, the Languages Act, which established Alberta as a unilingual province.
Another case, Caron versus Alberta, wrapped up almost a year ago with the Supreme Court ruling that the province had no obligation to pass laws in both French and English.
It was with this decision in mind that the NDP decided to engage in consultations with the francophone community on how it can sustainably provide more French language services.
Piquette says if the government truly wanted to make reparations with the province’s francophone population it would renounce Bill 60.
“I’m very happy the NDP government is approaching this in terms of a consultation, but I’m just wondering why are we not looking at Bill 60,” he said, pointing out that without a binding law, the work undertaken by the NDP could be undone “frivolously” by any future government.
St. Albert resident and treasurer for the regional office of the Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta, David Frechette says he is ecstatic that the consultations are happening after years of advocacy, but acknowledges the province’s current budget restraints.
“I’m not holding my breath for some of the more costly services. We’ll just have to wait. As a community we’re willing to accept that,” he said, adding that there are many services that could be offered without any additional costs.
The areas he would like to see addressed most are health care and education. He would like to see the contributions of francophones better reflected in the curriculum and more French-speaking health-care providers in long-term care facilities in the region.
St. Albert, Legal and Morinville have a large francophone population.
St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud says the creation of a French-language policy is also important to the economy.
“It opens the doors to French-speakers to come to Alberta and invest in Alberta in education and in business,” said Renaud.
Alberta attracts the third largest number of French-speaking immigrants in the country.
An online survey will be available to the greater public until Nov. 20. It can be accessed through the French Secretariat’s website at: culture.alberta.ca/francophone-secretariat.
