Quebec wants to force digital platforms to present more content in French

Improving the audiovisual offering in French online is one Of the nine priorities of the action plan for the French language unveiled Sunday by the government of François Legault.

Quebec Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, invited the media on Sunday morning to present a $603 million plan over five years. This plan includes 9 priorities and 21 measures which are or will be deployed over the coming months in order toreverse the decline of French in Quebec.

We are going on the offensive. Not against anyone, but to regain lost grounddeclared Mr. Roberge at a press conference.

Mr. Roberge was accompanied by the ministers who participated in the Action Group for the Future of the French Language: Christine Fréchette (Immigration and Francisation), Mathieu Lacombe (Culture and Communications), Pascale Déry (Higher Education), Bernard Drainville ( Education) and Martine Biron (International Relations and Francophonie).

In an exclusive interview granted to the show The corridors of power Before the press conference, Minister Roberge committed to legislating to force platforms like Netflix and Prime Video to feature more content in French. We must make room for our culturesaid Minister Roberge.

We are a society, we have a way of living, of expressing ourselves that is different. We need to create a legislative framework that reflects this.

The bill, whose tabling date has not yet been set, will fill what Quebec considers to be a regulatory void on the federal side. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulates radio and television in the country. Quebec believes that digital broadcasters are currently carrying out their activities without a precise framework.

In this context, Jean-François Roberge thinks that the government can be constitutionally creative.

It is the Quebec Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, who will have the mandate to bring this project to fruition. At a press conference, Mr. Lacombe announced that he will file within 12 months a bill that aims to guarantee our fundamental right to access and discoverability of French-language cultural content in the digital environment.

The French example

Since 2021, France has adopted a law to strengthen public access (New window) to French cinematographic and audiovisual works.

When we open Netflix in France, we consume French-speaking culture, films, French and French-speaking series. In Quebec, it is not [le cas]because we haven’t made the move until today.

In Quebec, the Academy of Digital Transformation (New window) (ATN) estimates that two-thirds of Internet users subscribe to at least one online video viewing service. The Academy believes that Quebec content is virtually invisible on platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ and Prime Video.

We will go further, because French will always be vulnerable in Quebecindicated Jean-François Roberge.

A dashboard for French

Building on the success of the health and education dashboards, Minister Roberge wishes to apply the same formula to monitor the state of health of French without having to wait for data from the federal census, published every five years.

Linguistic data will be collected each year and compiled by the Institute of Statistics of Quebec.

This will allow us to establish a precise portrait of the use of French in the province. The French language commissioner of Quebec, Benoît Dubreuil, will also be able to make recommendations.

Among the indicators, we will find in particular the level of French at work, in stores, in online commerce as well as in the cultural offer. However, Mr. Roberge did not want to indicate when these dashboards will be presented and if, like other government dashboards, there will be targets to achieve.

The question of the decline of French does not always generate consensus in Quebec society. While some use the language spoken at home as an indicator (74.8% and falling), others assert that we should rather focus on the ability to maintain a conversation in French, which has remained around 94% for a year. twenty years in Quebec.

However, in the field of work, French is in decline. Thus, in Quebec, the percentage of people who mainly use French at work increased from 81.8% in 2001 to 79.9% in 2021.

This rate is even 70% in Montreal, which has a high proportion of immigrants, and 53% among young people aged 18 to 34 (38% indicate they speak French and English).

We must give our children a taste for speaking French. It is our duty as a government, but it is also a collective responsibility.

The Ministry of Education plans in particular to update French study programs and raise students’ awareness of reading.

Young people “are quite connected to digital content, often in English,” said Martine Biron, Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie. However, French is far from being an innocuous language, she added, mentioning that it is the 5^e the most spoken language in the world and the 3^e business language, not to mention that Quebec has a role to play in its preservation within the International Organization of the Francophonie.

Mr. Roberge suggested that the plan presented today is not set in stone and that adjustments will be made over time.

Priority to francization

Beyond the supervision that Quebec wishes to impose on digital platforms, the action plan underlines the importance of promoting French in immigration.

Can the province achieve this without having the full powers demanded from Ottawa? Jean-François Roberge affirmed that the negotiations are going well and that a passageway could be created.

I think that between now and June, we will be able to make good progress in [une plus] great autonomy of Quebec in the planning of its immigrationhe said. This should allow us to have more of a say in who arrives here.

In the meantime, francization is going well, argued the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, who pointed out that over the last year, 70,000 people had access to the services of Francisation Québec, compared to 28,000 in 2017.

During the press conference, Ms. Fréchette indicated that the $320 million planned over five years will make it possible to develop francization services both in businesses and ahead of the arrival of immigrants. This amount will also make it possible to increase the pool of 750 teachers.

In recent months, the Legault government has announced its intention to strengthen efforts in francization and to make knowledge of French compulsory for all categories of economic immigrants (except for agricultural workers). French will also be required for the renewal of temporary work permits.

English-speaking universities will have to participate in the Frenchization of students registered at the undergraduate level. This fall, the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, caused an uproar by announcing an increase in tuition fees for Canadian students not residents of Quebec.

At a press conference on Sunday, Ms. Déry insisted on the importance of mobilizing the academic community on the protection of the language and also mentioned in particular “the creation of incentives to produce scientific publications in French”.

Of the 603 million dollars invested over five years, almost half aims to increase francization efforts for newcomers (320 million), to increase the French-speaking offer and its discoverability on platforms (187.3 million), to strengthen the mastery of French among Quebec students (64.9 million), nourish Quebecers’ attachment to the French language (12.8 million) and monitor linguistic indicators (18 million).

Political reactions

Québec solidaire was the first party to react to the announcement of the plan. I welcome the government’s desire to strengthen measures to protect French, especially with regard to French-speaking content on digital platforms.declared the solidarity MP for Mercier, Ruba Ghazal.

On the other hand, I am very disappointed by the absence of structuring measures to strengthen French as a working language, the most important indicator that Minister Roberge should follow to measure the vitality of our language.she added.