2016 census reveals anglophone population in Quebec rising despite language laws

“This is the most significant increase of any five-year census report we’ve seen in the last 40 years.”

English as a mother tongue increased in Quebec to 9.6 per cent last year from nine per cent in 2011, while English as a language spoken at home rose to 19.8 per cent from 18.3 per cent over the same period.

First official language is defined by Statistics Canada as a citizen’s primary language between English and French.

The agency defines mother tongue as a citizen’s first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual.

While anglophones might be more numerous in Quebec, the director general of an organization that links more than 50 English-language community groups in the province says services in the language are still lacking.

“We still worry about our schools,” said Sylvia Martin-Laforge of the Quebec Community Groups Network. “And we also worry about the quality of services to the English-speaking community in health care.”

Quebec’s strict language laws, which bar francophones from attending English-language schools, are a major reason why English school board attendance is falling, she said.

She added that anglophone parents are also increasingly choosing to school their children in French, while speaking English at home.

What would give a significant boost to anglophone institutions, Martin-Laforge added, is if the government permitted immigrants from British Commonwealth countries who moved to Quebec to attend English schools.

Jedwab said the overall number of francophones in Quebec has increased since the last census, but that the percentage has fallen.

The percentage of people who listed French as a mother tongue decreased to 78.4 per cent in 2016 from 79.7 per cent in 2011.

With a population of roughly eight million, Quebec has more than one million people whose first official language spoken is English, according to the census.

Quebec nationalist activists said the census numbers represent a disaster for Quebec francophones.

Eric Bouchard of the Mouvement Quebec francais said the province needs to “end institutional bilingualism” in order to help preserve the French language.

That involves ending all English-language services delivered by the state.

“When you phone a public department and you are told: ‘For English press 9’ — that means there is no need for anyone who lives here to learn French,” he said.

He suggested paying newcomers $400 a week to take French lessons so immigrants aren’t tempted to immediately enter the workforce without the necessary language skills to earn a good job.

“After one year everyone who comes here will know French and can find good jobs in French,” he said. “That’s inclusion.”

Bouchard said the decline of the French language needs to be taken as seriously as climate change.

“If nothing is done, French will be over,” he said. “The francophone elites need to take their head out of the sand.”

Giuseppe Valiante, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

2016 census reveals anglophone population in Quebec rising despite language laws

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