Quebec is the only province where the learning of the minority language is obligatory to the end of high school. In the minority francophone communities, there is a phrase that is often repeated. In minority language communities it is said, “We don't learn English, we catch it like a cold.”
If you look at the statistics, the level of bilingualism in minority language communities, certainly outside Quebec, is very high. In Quebec, 60% of anglophones are bilingual and 80% of anglophones between the ages of 18 and 34 are bilingual.
The challenge that minority communities have had over the years has not as much been about ensuring that the members of that community learn or speak English well; it has been about ensuring that French can thrive in their institutions. I've noticed a significant change over the last few decades with the introduction of French-language minority schools across the country, French-language school boards, French language legal associations, and the health networks that have been developed through the road maps.
There is still a challenge. There are many people in the minority francophone organizations who will say that one of the key learning points should be much more focus on early childhood education in French, to ensure that when children go to child care they learn in that language. In a pilot project in Windsor, they found that children who went to a child care program in French went on to primary and secondary school in French. It becomes a very important element for the vitality of minority communities.