Bilingual municipalities take action as Quebec’s native English speaking population falls

The 2021 Canadian census revealed the number of Quebecers whose mother tongue is English has continued to decline, and several municipalities where native English speakers were once the majority have now fallen below the 50 per cent threshold.

The 2021 Canadian census showed the number of Quebecers whose mother tongue is English has continued to decline, and several municipalities where native English speakers were once the majority have now fallen below the 50 per cent threshold.

As the mayor of the Laurentian town of Gore, Scott Pearce said he’s seen the decline first hand.

"When I took the job 20 years ago, the first few years we were over 50 per cent English. Now we’re down to about 20 per cent," he said.

It’s one of several communities in the Laurentians with deep English-speaking roots that has seen a decline. But the decline is also happening on the island of Montreal.

Depending on how you interpret the data from the latest census, cities such as Westmount, Pointe-Claire and Beaconsfield are already or on the verge of falling below 50 per cent.

Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, said these numbers aren’t surprising, but care should be taken in how they are interpreted.

"On the basis of mother tongue, they are decreasing across the board," he said. "And the government argues so is the percentage of francophones in some places is decreasing as well, because immigration, which is largely, from persons whose first language is neither English nor French, allophones, has risen and continues to increase."