City of Montreal receives committee’s recommendations to strengthen, promote French

The City of Montreal should do more to encourage newcomers and foreign students to learn French and be immersed in Quebec’s culture.

That’s just one of several recommendations made by the nine-person Committee on the French Language in its second and final report, delivered Wednesday.

The goal of the report is to promote the French language in Montreal.

“The promotion of the French language is a priority for our administration and we have already accomplished a lot since adopting Montreal’s very first action plan on the subject,” Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said. “However, we know that this comes with challenges in an international metropolis like Montreal, which is fortunate to have international head offices and a large foreign student population.

“We will therefore continue to build bridges with all the pillars of our communities so that French unites us and continues to be the language of use in Montreal.”

The committee also recommended Montreal develop a three-year framework agreement with the Ministry of the French Language; and that it create an Office of the French Language and Francophonie under the responsibility of the Commissioner of the French Language.

Other recommendations include:

• Demonstrate exemplary behavior in the use of French within the municipal administration and in its interactions with the public;
• Prioritize holding cultural activities and events in French in municipal institutions and public spaces, and promote French when holding events with an international reach;
• Strengthen the representation of the City of Montreal at major events of the institutional Francophonie.

“This report comes at just the right time. It will feed into the city’s next action plan, which will begin to be developed soon,” said Noémie Dansereau-Lavoie, Commissioner of the French Language for the City of Montreal.

The committee was chaired by Louise Harel and made up of volunteers.

“We are convinced that Montreal’s sociological and demographic reality requires a permanent institutional and political commitment to the Francophonie and the French language,” Harel said.