Ottawa, April 20, 2021 — Canadian Parents for French welcomes the federal government’s inclusion of a financial envelope of $180.4 million over three years, starting 2021-22, to Canadian Heritage to support students across the country in achieving greater levels of bilingualism in the federal budget announced yesterday.

The funding will support the enhancement of French immersion and French second language programs in schools and help provinces and territories meet the strong demand from parents for more student spaces in these programs, as well as supporting learning French from early childhood. CPF will be in contact with the Department of Canadian Heritage, to find out more about the investment priorities provided for in this budget envelope.

“We are optimistic that schools in every province and territory will benefit from this investment over the next three years. This is a good boost to enable them to better meet the expectations of parents, to enable equitable access to every child based on their parents’ choice for second official language learning anywhere in Canada,” said Derrek Bentley, President of CPF National.

In March, representatives of the CPF National and Branch Boards of Directors met with Minister Joly, an opportunity to discuss the vision of modernizing the Official Languages Act.

CPF is also pleased to see a concrete investment announced over two years to ensure the work required for the implementation of the Act may be undertaken promptly. These legislative and administrative changes are required to ensure equitable access to language education in support of promoting a bilingual Canada for all Canadians. We are pleased to see the Federal government further investing in high quality post-secondary education to benefit French language learners across Canada.

CPF has long advocated that being bilingual is a competitive advantage to all Canadians, our two official languages and our linguistic duality are part of who we are as Canadians. Every time a child cannot enrol in a French immersion program, we potentially lose a future bilingual citizen.

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Canadian Parents for French is a nationwide, research-informed, volunteer organization that represents 25,000 members across Canada and champions the opportunity to learn and use French for all those who call Canada home.

 

For more information, please contact:

Marcos Salaiza, Communications Manager

Tel: 613.235.1481 x222 Email: msalaiza@cpf.ca