Mr. Chair, honourable members, thank you on behalf of the Fédération des parents francophones de Colombie-Britannique for inviting us to contribute to the study on the minority-language education continuum.
The Fédération des parents francophones has been working on the francophone education file since it was created in 1979 and represents the parents of the 55,000 children who are entitled to primary and secondary education in French here in British Columbia. The Fédération des parents also operates child care centres.
Our organization was a strong supporter of the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, or CSF, and co-plaintiff with the CSF in the legal case that led to a victory at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2020.
For more than 20 years, the early childhood sector has been an essential component of French-language education. Access to such education in British Columbia obviously requires a network of schools that provide education to children in French as a first language. However, education in French must be understood in its broad sense. It starts in early childhood, at day care, and goes all the way to post-secondary education. Moreover, the entire minority-language education continuum should benefit from the constitutional guarantee.
Access to early childhood services in French is a fundamental issue for the vitality and development of our francophone minority communities, especially because they contribute to the transfer of language and culture to new generations. However, the problems in early childhood education remain.
For example, when it comes to infrastructure, the demand for French-language early child care services continues to far outstrip the availability of those services. According to the latest census, British Columbia has approximately 4,000 children aged four and under whose first language learned is French. However, there are only about 450 spaces in preschool centres providing services in French. In the vast majority of cases, parents have no choice but to enrol their child in an anglophone day care centre. That situation has painful consequences for the low rate of transmission of French among children with one French-speaking parent. To reverse this trend, we need long-term, structural solutions.
In terms of human resources, the impacts of the shortage of early childhood educators that is affecting the entire province are felt more acutely in our communities, whose vitality depends on access to early childhood services in French.
The action plan for official languages 2023-2028 includes additional investments in early childhood. We are very pleased that Employment and Social Development Canada recently granted $47.7 million over three years to the Commission nationale des parents francophones, or CNPF, to deploy a network of early childhood service providers. We are also delighted with the implementation of initiatives in francophone official language minority communities, as the needs in early childhood are urgent.
The fact remains that the impermanent nature of the federal structure when it comes to supporting minority-language education and early childhood services in French, as well as the lack of concrete obligations in this regard, are keeping francophone minority communities in a perpetual state of uncertainty. What will we do in March 2028 when the current action plan for official languages sunsets? Has our school system been built without a permanent, structuring government financial commitment?
The current legislative framework made it possible for early childhood to be virtually excluded from the Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages 2013-2018. Legally, nothing is preventing a future government from reverting to this situation with its next action plan for official languages.
Despite the recognition of the “unique needs of francophone minorities” in the agreements with the provinces and territories on the national child care program, the Fédération des parents francophones notes a lack of transparency, a lack of consultation and a lack of effective accountability mechanisms. Even worse, nothing is preventing a future government from abandoning this language provision when agreements are renewed.
There are many challenges when it comes to French-language early childhood education in British Columbia. For parents who speak French, living west of the Rockies should not be synonymous with their children's linguistic assimilation. Canada's linguistic duality must expand and be fully experienced, on a daily basis, from coast to coast to coast.
Thank you.