Franco-Albertan organizations satisfied with the provincial government’s new plan

Francophone community organizations in Alberta welcome the 2024-2028 plan from Danielle Smith’s government.

With this plan, we are going beyond service translation, we are really moving towards a more active offer, we are moving towards more constant support from certain organizations. We really see great progressrejoiced Nathalie Lachance, president of the Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta (ACFA).

I would like to thank the entire government for this Action Plan, which is much more strategic than the previous ones and which reflects the values ​​of collaboration and dialogueshe argued in the presence of Tanya Fir, the Alberta Minister of Arts, Culture and the Status of Women who is also responsible for the Francophonie file.

We recently reached an agreement with the federal government, details of which will be made public later, where we saw a significant increase in fundingexplained Tanya Fir, without making any financial promises associated with this plan.

Alberta has the third largest number of French speakers outside of Quebec, after Ontario and New Brunswick.

Active offer and visibility of symbols

In its 2024-2028 action plan released Tuesday, Alberta is committed to ensuring that existing French services from the provincial government, visible, accessible and promoted to the community.

In other words, services in French, when they exist, should be the subject of an active offer, as is the case for bilingual federal services.

Alberta also wants increase visibility Franco-Albertan symbols, including the Franco-Albertan flag, which became an official emblem of the province in 2017.

The action plan includes more than a hundred measures that the various ministries want to put in place over the next four years.

In terms of education, the government is committed to increase access to post-secondary education in French, in addition to working with establishments, such as Campus Saint-Jean, to offer more programs.

In the area of ​​justice, the authorities say they want to increase the number of French-speaking jurors by improving the collection of data on French language skills by judicial services.

Without announcing specific amounts, Alberta also wishes to optimize investments in the French-speaking school network in order to promote parental choice in education.

The obligations contained in the Francophonie policy are, however, not binding on the government, since there is no French Language Services Act in Alberta, unlike Ontario, for example.

The co-chair of the Alberta Francophonie Advisory Council, François Eudes, was nevertheless confident, because several ministries in the province were part of the consultations.

We have a much greater chance of achieving the desired result, knowing that each of the departments has proposed to act.

The minister does not speak French

In Alberta, within the Council of Ministers, responsibility for La Francophonie and the Francophone Secretariat falls to the person holding the Culture portfolio.

However, Tanya Fir, the MP for Calgary-Peigan appointed to this position a little less than a year ago, does not speak French: I learned it in high school, I learned it in college, and I lost it.

Even if I am not bilingual, the file is close to my heart and I want to represent it wellmaintains Tanya Fir, adding that she plans to take courses in the near future.

A role of Parliamentary Secretary for La Francophonie was created in 2019 to bridge the gap between the Government of Alberta and the Francophone community and its institutions. In turn, MPs Laila Goodridge and Dan Williams held this position, which was however abolished when Danielle Smith took power in October 2022.

Last year, the Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nate Glubish, who speaks French, was appointed as agent of liaison of the provincial government with the francophone community.