Canada’s federal government has recently announced its new Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028, with an emphasis on boosting Francophone immigration to Canada. The new action plan aims at allocating $1.4 billion over the next five years to promote official languages. This latest investment makes it the largest ever fund provided by the Canadian government to support official languages.

The new Action Plan outlines four main priorities, including accelerating the restoration of the demographic weight of Francophones through Francophone immigration, promoting lifelong learning opportunities for Canada’s two official languages, supporting the vitality of official-language minority communities, and building on positive government action to support communities.

Investing in Francophone Immigration

Francophone immigration is important for building French-speaking communities in Canada, especially outside of Quebec. To that end, the new Action Plan will invest $13.4 million over the next five years in a new policy and operational framework for Francophone immigration that will revisit overall governance and current commitments under the Francophone Immigration Strategy launched in 2019. This framework policy will help boost Francophone immigration and facilitate the settlement and integration of French-speaking or bilingual immigrants in Francophone minority communities.

Also, the federal government of Canada is planning to allocate $18.5 million over the next five years to encourage and build recruitment support in Canada and countries like Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. The investment will help attract more Francophone immigrants to Canada and facilitate their settlement in Francophone minority communities.

The government has also committed $50 million over the next five years to further consolidate the Francophone integration pathway. The pathway seeks to make settlement and integration easier for newcomers to Canada and improve the reception capacity of Francophone minority communities. The plan aims to achieve this through existing initiatives, such as Welcoming Francophone Communities, and new measures, such as a strategy to better support French-speaking women immigrants.

Early Learning and Teacher Recruitment

Early learning is crucial to promote bilingualism in Canada. The Action Plan includes an investment of $16.3 million over the next five years to support a series of targeted, interconnected initiatives to boost foreign recruitment of primary- and secondary-level French teachers and French-speaking teachers. These teachers will then settle in a Francophone minority community in Canada.

Existing Programs for Francophone Immigration

Finally, the government has committed $3.5 million to improve Francophone and bilingual immigration under existing programs. This investment will help ensure that current programs meet the needs of Francophone immigrants and support their settlement in Canada.

Canada’s Mandate to Promote and Protect Both Official Languages

The Canadian government has a mandate to promote and protect the status of both official languages, English and French. According to the Official Languages Act, Canada has to make sure that both official languages English and French are respected and treated with equality of status. It is the responsibility of IRCC to attract and retain French-speaking immigrants to help support French-speaking communities outside of Quebec.