Question Period Note - Data on language of work

Question Period Card - Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Issue

2021 Census of Canada Data: Language of work and minority language education

New

November 30, 2022

Source

Statistics Canada

Synopsis

On November 30, 2022 Statistics Canada released the 2021 Census data on language of work and minority language education.

Recommended response

• Data from the 2021 Census confirms an increase in the use of English at work in Canada, including in Quebec. Also, for the first time ever, data on children eligible for minority language education has been released.
• Our Government's commitment to the promotion and protection of French remains unwavering. In this regard, Bill C-13 proposes to enshrine in a new law new rights to work and obtain services in French in federally regulated private businesses in Quebec and in regions with a strong francophone presence in the country.
• New data on minority language education will provide a better estimate of the number of eligible children and a better assessment of the needs of official language minority communities.

Background

• On November 30, 2022 Statistics Canada released the 2021 Census data on language of work and minority language education.

Language of work

• In 2021, 98.7% of workers in Canada used one of the two official languages most often at work. Overall, 77.1% of workers used English most often (76.5% in 2016) and 19.9% used French most often at work (19.2% in 2016).
• In 2021, among workers living in Quebec, French was used primarily at work by 79.9%. English was used primarily by 14.0% of workers, an increase of 2% over the 2016 result. The data made public by Statistics Canada is not broken down by industry and does not allow, at this time, to observe trends at the level of federally regulated private businesses.
• This increase is particularly notable in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which in 2021 accounted for about half (51.6%) of the employed population in Quebec. For this area, the 2021 Census data shows that 21.0% of workers used English as their primary language, compared to 17.9% in 2016, while the predominant use of French at work remained relatively stable at 70.1% in 2016 and 70.0% in 2021.
• On March 1, 2022, Bill C-13 was introduced in the House of Commons to modernize and strengthen the Official Languages Act (OLA):
  • This Bill provides for a continuum of new powers for the Commissioner of Official Languages, including the power to enter into compliance agreements and to issue orders to federal institutions under Parts IV (language of service) and V (language of work) of the OLA.
  • The Bill also provides for the creation of a new law to enshrine new rights to work and obtain services in French in federally regulated private businesses (FRBP) in Quebec and in regions with a strong Francophone presence.
  • Les données rendues publiques par Statistiques Canada ne sont pas ventilées selon l’industrie. Il n’est donc pas possible pour l’instant d’observer les tendances au niveau des EPCF.

Rights holders

• In 2021, 897,000 children were eligible for instruction in the minority official language at the primary and secondary levels, namely in English in Quebec (304,000) and in French in Canada outside Quebec (593,000).
• Among the provinces and territories, New Brunswick (36.0%), Quebec (18.1%), Yukon (14.1%) and Ontario (12.6%) had the largest proportions of children eligible for instruction in the minority official language.
• Across Canada, 292,000 school-aged children attended a regular French-language program in a French-language school in a minority setting at the elementary or secondary level, representing 64.7% of eligible children aged 5 to 17. In Quebec, 175,000 school-aged children attended an English-language school at either the elementary or secondary level, representing 76.2% of eligible children aged 5 to 17 in that province.
• For the first time, in 2021, five questions on language of instruction were asked on the short and long Census questionnaires, in part to respond to requests from community associations and French-language school boards across the country. The main purpose of this addition was to obtain the number of children eligible for instruction in the official language of the minority. Although this new data has some limitations, it is one of the key pieces of the data ecosystem on this population that Statistics Canada is developing.
• Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right to minority language education to Francophone communities outside Quebec and to the English-speaking community of Quebec.
• Statistics Canada is developing an ecosystem of data on children eligible for education in English in Quebec and in French in the rest of Canada. It is a set of data sources that will provide information on the number of children eligible for minority language education, the number of children who are actually enrolled in a minority language education program at the elementary and secondary levels, and the number of children who are not enrolled, but whose parents intend to enroll them.
• In addition to the data released on November 30, the ecosystem will include the 2022 Official Language Minority Population Survey, the Elementary/Secondary Education Survey and other sources such as provincial and territorial data.