I will try to use my seven and a half minutes as efficiently as possible.
I would like to thank you for having invited me this afternoon.
I have 45 years of personal experience with Canada's Official Languages Act.
It began in 1976, when I filed a lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court against Air Canada, which was a Crown corporation at the time, before the Honourable Justice Jules Deschênes. The purpose was to enable Air Canada employees to work in French, and more particularly to obtain an injunction to require Air Canada to translate all its maintenance manuals so that French could really be a language of work.
After that, I was behind the creation of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, of which you are the honourable members today. It came about when I introduced a bill in 1981 with my colleague Mr. Pierre De Bané.
I was also the architect of the Court Challenges Program for sections 16 to 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which delineate the status of French and give it the protection we know today.
I intervened in the Montfort Hospital case in 1997. There is no need for details about this since I believe most of you will remember it.
I also intervened with the president of the Treasury Board in 1998, when Francophone communities were suffering the consequences of the budget cuts decreed by the government of the day. Every single government budget item was affected, except for those pertaining to indigenous groups and for which an exception had been made. There was no exception for official language minority communities, on the other hand. I therefore intervened to have this decision reviewed.
I moved the amendment to part VII of the Official Languages Act in 2005. When our late colleague, Senator Jean-Robert Gauthier retired, we were able to continue the debate and have the amendment to part VII adopted. I will return to this later.
I intervened in 2007 to prevent the elimination of the Court Challenges Program by the government of the day. I supported the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne when it threatened to take action against the government to reverse its decision to eliminate the program.
I contributed to the study of the Senate Standing Committee on Official Languages for the 2018 review of the Official Languages Act.
Lastly, in 2019, I responded to a request from the Superior Court of Quebec with respect to the application of section 55 of the Constitution Act, 1982, to adopt an official French version of the Constitution Act, 1867. We are currently defending this in court.
I therefore thank you, given my background, for having invited me here this afternoon.
I will give a brief presentation, but I would imagine that during the round of questions, we will have an opportunity to go into more detail about the points I will have raised.
I'd like to begin by clarifying things for everyone.
My first point pertains to immigration, which is to say that a critical mass of French speakers needs to be maintained. This goal is essential to the vitality of French in Canada. Why? Because the fertility rate has not been keeping pace with the death rate. This is also true in Quebec, my home province. There would be a net annual decline without immigration.
My second point is that Quebec is the province in which people are aging most rapidly. Globally, we are virtually ex æquo with Japan. According to the statistics, 25% of Quebecers will be 65 years and over by 2030. This means that 25% of the population will have left the workforce or will no longer be participating actively. It's extremely important to take this statistic into account for any workforce planning.
I would refer you to the editorial in yesterday's, February 24, Le Devoir, which reported that the Institut de la statistique du Québec had found that immigrants held 12.2% of all jobs in Quebec 10 years ago, but now held 18%. This means that 250,000 of the jobs were held by immigrants whereas the number held by residents of Quebec declined by 110,000.
It further means that without the demographic resources of immigration, the ratio of francophones to anglophones in Quebec will decline. It is going to drop so much that in some regions, everyday living in French will become extremely difficult
My view is that this is a key question if we want to understand the dynamics in which we are collectively caught up, as Quebecers and Canadians, on matters of immigration. It's essential to ensure that people who wish to immigrate have access to financially supported training, not only for workers, but also their families, and those who are part of the family unit. This could restore the balance, which in my view is essential in our country.
In closing, I believe that it's extremely important to ensure the discoverability of French works on digital platforms. The new generations are highly influenced by the English language on that instrument that every one of us uses these days. I think that the issue of anglicization is a much more important priority and that it requires government initiatives. Otherwise the few random measures we might take will not succeed in reversing the pervasive shift towards English in all spheres of everyday life.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd be happy to join your discussion this afternoon.