Media realease: FFTNL urges the Federal Government to Adopt Francophone Immigration Targets Sufficiently Ambitious to Ensure the Growth of Canada's Francophone Minority Communities
Published on October 27, 2023
For Immediate Release
St. John's, October 27, 2023
As the federal government prepares to announce Canada's immigration levels for the next three years, The Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador (FFTNL) joins organizations representing Francophone minority communities in 11 provinces and territories in voicing concern regarding the low targets for Francophone immigration outside Quebec currently being considered by Minister Marc Miller. The minister recently stated that he was considering a target of 6 percent for 2024, which would increase to 7 percent in 2025 and 8 percent in 2026.
The FFTNL urges the government to adopt targets high enough to reverse the demographic decline of the Francophone communities and put them back on a path to growth. For two years now, FFTNL and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada have been calling for a 12% target for Francophone immigration starting in 2023.
"The government will be announcing immigration levels in the next few days. It's one minute to midnight and despite years of advocacy by our communities, we have no assurance that the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship will adopt sufficient targets to increase the demographic weight of our communities. It's alarming, because if we miss the boat, we'll miss it for the next three years," says Mrs. Sophie Thibodeau, president.
The FFTNL wishes to emphasize that the Official Languages Act, modernised in June, requires the government to take action to restore the demographic weight of Francophone minority communities to what it was in 1971. If Canada's immigration levels are announced with insufficient Francophone immigration targets, this will be a blatant breach of the Act.
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The Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador (FFTNL) is the voice of Newfoundland and Labrador's francophone and Acadian communities. Its mission is to defend and promote the rights and interests of these communities, to promote the French-speaking community of Newfoundland and Labrador and to facilitate its development.
For further information: :
- Gaël Corbineau, general manager
Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador
(709) 800-6200 Corbineau@fftnl.ca
