Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor reiterated an earlier announcement regarding an extra $500 million investment in Canada’s two official languages via the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018 – 2023: Investing in Our Future.
She says French and English bring us together, and are a symbol of our country’s diverse and inclusive society.
“The 2016 census indicates that our country’s overall population is growing faster than the number of francophones,” says Petitpas Taylor. “And among the english speaking majority outside Quebec, bilingualism is stagnant, so we absolutely need to take action.”
She says the goal is to “restore the relative proportion of francophones outside Quebec, and to increase the bilingualism of english speakers outside of Quebec, we want to have a strong Canadian Francophonie, and a bilingual Canada.”
Petitpas Taylor says the Action Plan contains more than 30 new measures, including significant investment in community organizations, and the creation of a free online tool for learning English and French.
The plan includes a total of $2.7 billion of spending over five years.
