Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, once again, the Liberals refused to acknowledge the decline of French in Quebec and Canada. However, Canada's census provides the relevant figures.
From 2016 to 2021, the percentage of francophones in Canada, based on the first official language spoken, dropped from 22.2% to 21.4%. The percentage of Quebeckers who speak mainly French at home dropped from 79% to 77.5%. In the workplace, it slipped from 81.9% in 2011 to 79.7%. Those are the facts. Any denial of the facts by the government or by its Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship is a political denial.
Clearly, the only way to reverse the decline of French is for Quebec to have exclusive authority over its language policy. It is equally clear that the best way to achieve that is to make Quebec a country.