Facts about Official Languages in Western Canada
A few statistics
There are 9.6 million Canadians (30.7% of the population) who speak French and 26.6 million (85%) who speak English.
In Alberta, 64,7501 people (1.9%) identify French as their mother tongue. In British Columbia, about 59,000 people (1.4%) declare French as their mother tongue.
Percentage and number of bilingual people in major Canadian cities
| Montréal | 52% (1,861,952) |
| Ottawa–Gatineau | 44.4% (496,025) |
| Halifax | 12.1% (44,875) |
| Winnipeg | 10.9% (74,880) |
| Toronto | 8.3% (418,505) |
| Edmonton | 7.6% (77,950) |
| Vancouver | 7.8% (162,790) |
| Calgary | 7.9% (84,085) |
Myth and realities
Myth:
Bilingualism is a failure and Canadians do not want to have anything to do with it, especially in Western Canada.
Reality:
More and more Canadians understand the social, political and economic benefits of having two official languages, and support for bilingualism is higher than ever. According to a survey conducted by Decima Research in 2006, 7 out of 10 Canadians are personally in favour of bilingualism for the whole country or for their own province.
Many parents in British Columbia want their children to be fluent in both official languages. It is therefore not surprising that registrations for immersion programs in
the province continue to rise considerably—up by 4.0% last year alone. Moreover, the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britanique (Francophone school board of British Columbia) celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006. There are now 38 Francophone schools in the province that offer a complete curriculum from Kindergarten to Grade 12.
Alberta is often cited as a model for best practices in French education and support for the official language community. According to the 2006 Decima Research survey, 57% of Albertans rank French as more important than any other second language.
Myth:
There is no vitality to speak of in Western Canada’s Francophone communities, given the rate at which this population is decreasing year after year.
Reality:
From 2001 to 2006, outside of Quebec, only the French-speaking populations of British Columbia and Alberta came out on top in the migratory exchanges between the provinces and territories. For example, British Columbia’s Francophone community welcomed around 500 Francophone newcomers during that period.
Granted, the Francophone communities of Alberta and British Columbia cannot be compared to those in other provinces, such as Ontario and New Brunswick. However, many official language minority communities demonstrate a resilience that is also present in the Francophone communities of Western Canada. Their Francophone community organizations and institutions are proof of this remarkable dynamism.
Alberta’s Francophone community is evolving at an unparalleled pace. The education, culture and immigration sectors have all have been looking up over the past few years. A renewed, strengthened leadership is being felt in a province that is experiencing unprecedented development and economic growth.
In British Columbia, the Francophone community is a major partner of the City of Vancouver in planning the 2010 Olympic Games. This community is working with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and with Francophone organizations in the rest of Canada to ensure that the Games reflect Canada’s linguistic duality and cultural diversity. Only through recognition of the equal status of English and French as Canadian languages can the Games be truly successful.
For instance, the people of Maillardville, in the city of Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver) are proud of their French-Canadian roots, and they boast of a vitality that is supported in the political sphere and the business world. City representatives are currently working on developing the Francophone Village project, an Olympic edition of the Festival du Bois that will showcase Canada’s Francophone community through cultural events in 2010.
Myth:
In Canada, French is bound to lose its place as second language to Mandarin or Spanish.
Reality:
More than one in five Canadians declare French their mother tongue,2 making it the second most spoken language in Canada. In fact, there are almost one million speakers whose mother tongue is French and who live outside Quebec. This number is greater than that for all speakers of other languages in the country, excluding English.
All Canadians are in a position to acquire knowledge of both official languages. For instance, approximately 11% of visible minorities aged 20 to 49 are bilingual. Among those aged 20–29 who declare themselves members of a visible minority group, the bilingualism rate is even higher, at 16%.
According to data from the 2006 census, only 20% of the entire Canadian population has a mother tongue that is neither English nor French.
Notes
1. Following a breakdown of multiple-choice answers.
2. "Mother tongue" refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census (2006 Census, Statistics Canada).
