Anxieties of the English: “We can’t afford to lose Quebec,” said Couillard

Photo Simon Clark
The premier of Québec, Philippe Couillard

Maxime Huard

Monday, 19 February 2018 19:19

UPDATE
Monday, 19 February 2018 19:25

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OTTAWA | Face to the data according to which a majority of English speakers have already thought to leave the province, Philippe Couillard insisted on the need to retain all workers in Quebec, Monday.

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“With the shortage of labour that we know, we can’t afford to lose Quebec,” underlined the prime minister of Quebec at a press conference in Saint-Félicien, in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.

A survey Light published the end of last week by The Journal de Montreal shows that 60 % of anglophones in Quebec have already planned to settle in another province.

Mr. Couillard has reiterated that he perceived a “sense of remoteness” in the English-speaking, reason for which his government has created the post of minister in charge of Relations with the Quebec English-language the fall of last year.

It intends to present an action plan that will aim to facilitate access to the labour market as well as in French language courses. “We want that all Quebecers feel like Quebecers to be full,” snapped the prime minister.

Reactions federal

The survey also noted that 49 % of young anglophones in Quebec feel conflicting relations with the French-speaking, a proportion that falls to 33 % in the English-language community in general.

The study was conducted online in the wake of the debate of the “Hello, hi” and “Adidas Gate” last fall.

“The controversy of the “Hello, hi”, this is nothing compared to that of Meech lake. People who have experienced the tensions of the 1990s believe that the relations with the French are really the best today,” commented Monday, liberal mp, montreal Anthony Housefather.

In total, 57 % of anglophones refer to as harmonious relations with the French. “We’ve seen a huge improvement over the years, but the young people do not have these memories”, has analysed the elected officials of Mont-Royal.

His liberal colleague of Ville-Marie abounded in the same sense. “What I see on the ground contrast with what, to me, I lived when I was young with the two referendums,” said Marc Miller, skeptical about the results of the survey.

He finds that the young people of today do not define themselves more according to the cleavages of language, but rather according to a social vision of Quebec, recalling that the conflict student of 2012 had brought together francophones and anglophones.

Two liberal members of parliament in Ottawa, Greg Fergus and William Amos, was also surprised by the figures of the survey. In their region, one of the most highly bilingual in Quebec, the interactions between the communities are strong and positive, they said.

Misunderstood by the majority

Anthony Housefather, he is not surprised by the results of the survey. The difficulties experienced by English-speaking Quebecers are real, he insisted.

The liberal deplores in particular the lack of access to public services in English and the obstacles that must be overcome by some anglophones in the labour market because of their level of French.

Mr. Housefather believes that many English speakers feel misunderstood by the francophone majority in Quebec.

The elected montrealers, however, is a little alarmist the statistic that 60 % of these have already thought about moving to another province. “Each departure is a loss of wealth for Quebec, but those who spend really speech acts are less numerous than 60 %”, a-t-he range.

Francization before any

The spokesman of the parti québecois in terms of culture and language, Pascal Bérubé, has argued that Quebec would hold more English-speaking if there were more French immersion and exchanges between colleges in the cégeps anglophones.

“We are convinced that the success of social and professional English-speaking calls for a better learning of the French language”,-he said.