LANG Committee Report

Supplementary Opinion of the New Democratic Party of Canada

Second Official Language Immersion Programs in Canada

Official Languages Committee

We would like to thank each of the witnesses who appeared before the Committee during its study on Canada’s second official language immersion programs. They made valuable contributions that enabled us to better understand the challenges and opportunities presented by French immersion in Canada.

We are disappointed that most of the Committee’s recommendations do not reflect parts of the witnesses’ testimony and that the Committee did not endorse a number of their key recommendations. Therefore, we would like to supplement the Committee’s report with the following.

First, based on the testimony heard, we encourage the Department of Canadian Heritage to consider increasing the funding for future protocols for agreements for minority-language education and second-language learning, taking into account the growing demand and the resources available.

The preparation of such protocols for agreements requires significant federal-provincial-territorial cooperation. The federal government must ensure that it respects the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories while meeting its obligations under the Official Languages Act.

Second, the NDP requests that, in negotiating future protocols for agreements, the Government of Canada, together with the provinces and territories and through the CMEC:

– ensure that the bilateral agreements include annual consultations with the sector’s key associations and that these associations are clearly identified in the agreements;

– develop a strategy for creating a continuum of French second-language education from primary school to the post-secondary level to the labour market;

– take into account the following priorities: better meeting the demand for French second-language education programs, including French immersion, at the primary and secondary levels; providing various entry points into French immersion programs, including early immersion; providing French second-language education programs in rural and remote areas and addressing the transportation issue; developing specialized services for immigrant students and students with learning disabilities as well as for their parents;

– take the necessary steps to facilitate access to post-secondary French second-language programs and consider the following:

1. providing incentives such as scholarships to encourage students to continue learning French as a second language at the post-secondary level; and
2. offering programs at Canadian post-secondary institutions whose goal is to retain and foster the success of post-secondary students who choose to continue learning French as a second language;

– take the necessary steps to help Canadian post-secondary institutions enrich their training programs for instructors who specialize in French second-language education, with a focus on retaining them;

– consider, in light of available resources, increasing its support for French second-language education programs in Quebec so that the schools of the province’s anglophone minority can provide high-quality French second-language programs, thereby enhancing the vitality of the anglophone minority in Quebec; and

– work with the key Canadian stakeholders in French second-language education to identify educational resource needs and take the necessary steps to enhance these resources.

The NDP hopes that the Department of Canadian Heritage will implement these recommendations so that Canada’s immersion programs can grow and improve.