Good morning.
The Centre d'accueil francophone Immigration des Territoires du Nord-Ouest provides a referral service for newcomers informing them of community resources and services available in French, health care, and youth services. A broad array of activities is on offer and everyone has access to services in French. Folks are informed about services available in French.
We try to foster loyalty at a community level among newcomers to the Northwest Territories in an attempt ensure the survival of the French language. We are aware that the population is transient in the Northwest Territories: folks stay for a while and then sometimes leave. If francophones decides not to stay—a great majority of the francophones come from other provinces and sometimes from abroad—we may end up losing our community. We really want to strengthen community ties and provide as many services in French as possible so that residents can live in French in the Northwest Territories. The centre’s mandate is to foster loyalty among francophones.
The same is true of seniors. We try to provide as many activities in French as possible and create French-language groups. I don’t want this to be perceived as the ghettoization of our small francophone community. We want to work together to ensure its survival. The challenge is to guarantee the survival of a francophone culture in an anglophone environment.