Francophone communities eye cut of $50-million program

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Acadian Peninsula officials believe a visit from federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller signals that it’s about to get an influx of money to help recruit and integrate new French-speaking immigrants.

The feds have set aside $137 million to carry out its five-year Action Plan for Official Languages that it unveiled late last year.

Miller was in Caraquet earlier this week to detail a series of new measures from the plan aimed at achieving lofty new French-speaking immigration targets for communities outside Quebec.

The feds now want six per cent of all francophone immigrants entering Canada annually to settle outside of Quebec.

The target must then gradually increase to seven per cent in 2025 and then eight per cent in 2026.

That’s as the target was 4.4 per cent last year.

And between 2006 and 2022, roughly three per cent of French newcomers moved to communities outside of Quebec.

Miller announced on Tuesday that the feds will now expand a program called the “Welcoming Francophone Communities Initiative.”

The new official languages action plan earmarks $50 million over five years to help settle and integrate newcomers to Canada in minority language communities.

The funding was previously restricted to 10 communities, with Miller now announcing that it will expand to 24, although without naming the new recipients.

The Haut-Saint Jean region surrounding Edmundston was already one of the 10 communities, receiving $327,016 annually in each of the last five years through the initiative.

Caraquet, Shippagan and Tracadie had applied for the program.

“We think we will be part of it in the very near future,” said Shippagan Mayor Kassim Doumbia, who is also president of the Regional Services Commission of the Acadian Peninsula.

“Immigration is a priority issue to ensure the viability of our communities.

“The minister’s announcement is encouraging, knowing that our region greatly values ​​French-speaking immigration.”

Miller also announced the creation of a new initiative to fund “innovative projects aimed at eliminating barriers to francophone immigration.”

In a statement, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada said the announcement is a recognition by government that “we need tailor-made programs for our communities,” said federation president Liane Roy.

“However, it remains to be seen how adding a French-speaking lens to the department’s general immigration programs will translate into precise numbers in terms of admissions of French-speaking immigrants,” Roy said.

The federation also wants to see the demographic weight of francophone and Acadian communities return to what it was in 1971.

Quebec had 28 per cent of the country’s population at that time, a percentage that has fallen to 23 per cent. Meanwhile French-speakers outside of Quebec made up 6.1 per cent of the population at that time, a figure that’s fallen to 3.5 per cent.