Quebec French teacher let go in cuts to francization says $10M from province is ‘almost nothing’

Since late October, hundreds of adult French courses have been cancelled in Quebec and more than 200 French teachers have been let go as part of a series of cuts to francization programs by the Quebec government.

In Montreal, Victorine Michalon is one of the teachers who lost her job. She taught French at an adult education centre in Outremont primarily to immigrants learning to speak, read and write French.

“It will cost much more and very, very soon because these people cannot learn French, they cannot find a job and it will be the government that will pay for that,” said Michalon, who is also the spokesperson for Collectif Francisation – a group of 600 teachers.

“If we want to protect the French language, we have to invest in the francization.”

Michalon says her former adult education centre, and all of the others within her school service centre, are no longer accepting new students for francization.

“Across Québec, we have 66 centres giving francization; 38 of them have no more francization classes,” she explained. “So this is a big, big cut.”

Collectif Francisation estimates the recent cuts to francization by the Quebec government have prevented about 20,000 people from accessing a French class.

“How they can learn French within six months, because the delay is huge,” Michalon told CityNews. “So in Montreal, it’s between six and 12 months to enter a class before the cuts. Now, we don’t know. It’s going to expand even more.”

$10M towards francization

On Thursday, the Quebec government announced an additional $10 million to fund francization courses. It is expected to allow about 5,000 students to take French classes between now and March 31.

“Just to give you an idea, with $5 million, we run one centre for one year,” Michalon said. “So can you imagine, $10 million? It’s just, what, two centres for one year? So it’s almost nothing, just a (bandage).”

It’s also believed much of the funding will go to more isolated regions in the province rather than bigger centres such as Montreal and Quebec City.

“There are many, many, far too many people in Quebec, particularly temporary immigrants, who do not speak French,” said Quebec Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge. “Our ability to Frenchify is not infinite. The ability of Quebecers to pay is not infinite.

“What I am saying is that we are going to do the most we can with the money that Quebecers give us. We are not going to increase taxes. We are not going to Frenchify 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 people per year. It is not possible.”