QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
Minority Language Child Care
March 20, 2024
My question is to the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, on this International Francophonie Day, I want to ask you about francophone daycares in Newfoundland and Labrador. According to a Radio-Canada article, due to a lack of infrastructure and qualified French-speaking personnel, there is very limited access to French-speaking daycares.
The result is that many families are forced to put their children in English-speaking daycares. Since the government is so rightfully proud of its $10-a-day child care agreements with the various provinces, what is your response to the families who would prefer to send their children to francophone daycares but are unable to do so?
Thank you for your question, and for underlining and highlighting International Francophonie Day. Access to quality child care is important for all children and families, including — of course — those who are members of official language minority communities. That’s why the federal government has made sure that in all of its bilateral agreements with provinces and territories outside of Quebec, the provinces are committed to protecting and respecting the rights of official language minority communities in that regard. Ultimately, colleagues, as you know, the implementation of these agreements in the area of child care is the responsibility of the provincial governments, and the federal government will continue to work with them — Newfoundland and Labrador and others — to ensure that these agreements are successful.
Senator Gold, 5% of the population in Newfoundland and Labrador can conduct a conversation in French. In 2021, 0.7% of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians spoke French at home regularly. In order to maintain or even improve the statistic, what is the government going to do to improve access to French resources in the province?
Thank you for the question. One of the things the government does is support minority language community organizations within the province, and under the Action Plan for Official Languages, the government has invested $1.6 million in eight organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador, and that represents approximately a 33% funding increase since 2018. It will continue to do what it can to support those communities.
