The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada, the national voice of Canada’s French-speaking minority communities, is pleased that a bill to modernize the Official Languages Act has finally been introduced in Parliament earlier today. This bill is a further, and sizeable, step forward toward a respected Official Languages Act tailored to the realities of Canada in the 21st century and designed to truly give life to Canada’s official languages.

“This is a moment of great pride for the FCFA and the communities we represent. We’ve been working on this great endeavour for four years now, with the deep conviction that overhauling the Act to fully unlock the potential of French as well as English is good for Canada as a whole,” says FCFA President Jean Johnson.

The FCFA wishes to acknowledge the remarkable work done on this endeavour by the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, and her team. “Several of the core principles in this bill, such as the federal government’s responsibility to protect and promote French, are the work of Minister Joly,” notes Mr. Johnson.

The FCFA plans to carry out an in-depth legal analysis of the bill in the coming weeks. “There is now a concrete proposal on the table and we have the duty to thoroughly study it and then work to help evolve it into the final version that will be adopted by Parliament. We look forward to working with the government, namely, on the regulations that will operationalize the Act once it’s adopted,” explains Mr. Johnson.

The Fédération encourages all political parties to work together to make this bill into law.

Our organization has prepared a table presenting different elements of the bill in comparison with key asks by Canada’s Francophone and Acadian communities.