Quebec Liberals seek probe of closing of newcomers’ French-language classes

Federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Friday $750 million the federal government is spending to help Quebec with newcomers is not being fully used.

The Quebec Liberal Party has called for the province’s French language commissioner to investigate the cancelling of some French-language training courses for newcomers.

Citing an “ongoing series of closures of francization programs,” the Opposition party announced Saturday morning in a news release that its critics for the French language and French classes, André Albert Morin and Madwa-Nika Cadet, sent a letter to the Commissioner of the French Language.

The letter asks commissioner Benoît Dubreuil to “investigate to ensure that the right to French language learning services, included in the Charter of the French Language, is respected,” the release said.

The Liberals are blaming the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s budgetary decisions, which it says, “jeopardize the possibility for immigrants to become French speakers within a time frame that would facilitate their integration into the job market and into Quebec society.”

In interviews this week, Quebec’s Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge blamed school service centres for the closures, saying his government had actually increased budgets for French-language courses.

However, media reports this week described education centres forced to cut back on programming because of budget constraints imposed on them by the province, which have also resulted in teachers losing their jobs.

“These cuts have led, in recent weeks, to the cancellation of French courses, particularly in the regions of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the Capitale-Nationale, Eastern Townships, Laval, the Laurentides, Mauricie and Montreal,” the release said.

Aside from cancellations, the Liberals say average wait times for full-time French study has recently doubled to four months while people who are enrolled are sometimes forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to attend class.