SUPPORT FOR A MINORITY
English-speaking Quebecers have long since come to realize that ours is a minority community in a predominantly French-speaking province. But persuading our fellow Quebecers that this community has rights and vulnerabilities has been an ongoing challenge. So has getting proper attention from the federal government, which, not without reason, has tended to focus its official-language efforts on boosting French.
Fact is, the anglo minority needs and deserves some support, too.
And this week, both the provincial and federal governments took welcome steps to provide it.
On Tuesday, the Quebec budget allocated badly needed additional funding for Quebec’s new secretariat for English-speaking Quebecers. Its job is to ensure that the community’s rights and interests receive consideration at the highest levels. Even under this friendly Liberal government, there have been at least two instances (the ill-conceived Bill 10 on hospital administration and the ill-fated Bill 86 on school governance) of broader initiatives causing, or threatening to cause, collateral damage to the community. Now, with a commitment of $24.5 million spread over six years, it appears that the bare-bones secretariat is to be fleshed out, and that community groups are going to get resources to enable them to provide input.
It is in the English-speaking community’s interest that the secretariat be firmly established; that makes it harder for a future government to sweep it away. Indeed, it was reassuring that even as Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault accused the Liberals of trying to buy anglo votes, he suggested that a CAQ government would be likely to uphold the new funding.
Then, on Wednesday, the federal government published its Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future. While the distribution of resources is far from symmetrical — fair enough, the circumstances are not symmetrical — Quebec’s official-language minority does get some welcome attention, including $5 million to support community initiatives and $3 million to expand English health networks in rural and remote regions. (However, Englishspeaking Quebecers can only look with envy at the support for francophone immigration to the rest of Canada, to give a demographic boost to linguistic-minority communities there; political realities do not allow a reciprocal program.)
Both the provincial and federal governments have emphasized the need to support rural anglophones’ access to services. Certainly, this is an important issue. However, it would be fitting if greater notice were also taken of Montreal anglos’ concerns; while English services are in better supply on the island, concerns are growing about such matters as dwindling school enrolment and access to health care and social services.
Still, it’s nice, at last, to be on the radar.