‘Bottlenecks’ at Francisation Québec: French Language Commissioner

Since its creation about a year ago, Francisation Québec has been struggling to keep up with demand, causing “bottlenecks.” Nearly half of those who applied for enrolment have still not started their courses as of April 15, 2024.

These are the findings of the latest report by the French Language Commissioner, Benoît Dubreuil, published on Wednesday.

Set up in June 2023, Francisation Québec is a one-stop shop designed to simplify access to French courses, particularly for new arrivals.

Between the time of its creation and April 2024, out of nearly 99,000 requests received by the organization, 50,400 people had started their courses or received confirmation of enrolment.

“Since June 1, 2023, however, the mechanisms implemented have not been able to cope with the large volume of applications submitted. Bottlenecks have thus appeared in the process of forming groups, creating waiting times for applicants and causing various problems for service providers and students,” the report states.

Adding that there is “a close link between the increase in the number of temporary foreign workers in Quebec and the increase in the number of applications for French courses,” but that this demand does not seem to have been anticipated by Francisation Québec.

“However, the significant growth in the number of temporary workers who do not speak French was not completely unforeseeable. In fact, it is the result of changes that the governments of Quebec and Canada implemented without first assessing the capacity of French-language learning services to accommodate this new clientele,” adds the Commissioner in his 121-page report.

Dubreuil recommends “developing a robust demand forecasting model and strengthening enrolment management mechanisms to help reduce processing times.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews