OLLO – Official Languages Action Plan 2023-2028 – November 4, 2024

Key Facts and Figures

• Led by Canadian Heritage, the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028: Protection-Promotion-Collaboration was released on April 26, 2023.
• It provides for an additional investment of $1.4B over five years, on top of the ongoing $2.7B inherited from previous federal official language strategies, bringing the Government of Canada's total investment in official languages to $4.1B over five years, for the period 2023-2028.
• This is the largest investment ever made by a government in official languages in Canada.
• The Action Plan is structured around four pillars that represent strategic areas of intervention likely to make a difference in the quest for greater substantive equality between English and French in Canada:
  • Francophone immigration: Towards the restoration of the demographic weight of Francophones;
  • Promoting lifelong learning opportunities;
  • Strong measures in support of community vitality;
  • Leading by example: Acting and collaborating to strengthen communities.
• The Francophone immigration pillar falls under Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) authorities. It represents an investment of $137.2M in new funds, in addition to $80.2M in ongoing funds from previous Action Plans, for a total of $217.4M over five years. The new funds will enable the implementation and management of seven strategic measures in Francophone immigration.
• The seven measures are:

  	Measure	$ over five years
  1.	Francophone immigration policy: Towards a new, integrated approach	$13.4M
  2.	Targeted expansion of promotion and recruitment support	$18.5M
  3.	Corridor for the selection and retention of French teachers in Canada	$16.3M
  4.	A strengthened integration pathway	$50M
  5.	A Centre for Innovation in Francophone Immigration, including a new grant-and-contribution program in support of Francophone immigration	$25M
  6.	Francophone lens integrated into economic immigration programs - improved selection mechanisms for Francophone and bilingual immigrants	$3.5M
  7.	Helping newcomers learn English and/or French	$10.5M

Key Messages

• The Action Plan includes a historic investment to support specific measures and targeted areas of intervention in Francophone Immigration and enables IRCC to support the engagement of the government to restore the demographic weight of French linguistic minority communities.
• The Francophone immigration package of measures will enable the Government of Canada to achieve concrete objectives with the support of key partners, including the provinces and territories, community stakeholders, and other federal departments.
• The implementation of all the measures in the Action Plan demonstrates the federal government's firm commitment to the vitality of Francophone minority communities (FMCs).

Supplementary Information

• In January 2024, the Minister of IRCC announced a series of initiatives to support Francophone immigration outside Quebec.
• These measures include:
  • A new Policy on Francophone Immigration;
  • Renewal and expansion of the Welcoming Francophone Communities (WFCs) initiative; and
  • A new program to support Francophone immigration and implementation of the Action Plan for Official Languages.
• The Policy supports Francophone immigration as a key and ongoing priority for IRCC. It helps enhance the vitality of FMCs, support their economic prosperity, and progress towards restoring and increasing their demographic weight.
• The WFCs initiative was renewed, and also expanded to 10 new communities over the past summer, for a total of 24 WFCs. These communities receive funding to support the integration of French-speaking newcomers in host communities. The initiative fosters the creation of ties and the development of a sense of belonging among newcomers to their host community.
• The new Francophone Immigration Support Program intends to fund innovative projects aimed at reducing barriers to Francophone immigration. The program facilitates the participation of FMCs in the implementation of projects, particularly with regard to the promotion of FMCs internationally, the identification, support and recruitment of French-speaking candidates.
• For example, IRCC may fund projects to:
  • Develop and implement innovative approaches to identify and recruit French-speaking candidates for a particular sector in need.
  • Develop promotional and communication strategies aimed at French-speaking candidates (for instance, adapted messages, communications, marketing and social media content approaches).
  • Carry out research and case studies that identify systemic barriers to identifying, recruiting and selecting French-speaking candidates.

If pressed on how the seven initiatives of the Francophone Immigration pillar from the Official Languages Action Plan will help the Department address stakeholder concerns and meet more ambitious objectives and targets in the future?

• Structured under the new Policy on Francophone Immigration, the seven initiatives will strengthen IRCC’s actions to achieve ambitious Francophone objectives.
• Specifically, these initiatives will:
  • Increase current targeted promotional activities and expand them in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, which will be critical to increasing our inventories and the number of French-speaking admissions;
  • Leverage the expertise of the Centre for Innovation in Francophone Immigration to help increase our Francophone immigration levels by exploring new and promising practices from promotion to retention of immigrants;
  • Ensure a Francophone lens is more systematically integrated into our economic programs to support labour market shortages across Canada; analysis of temporary and permanent economic programs with the intention of optimizing the selection of Francophone immigrants.
  • Develop a series of interconnected, targeted initiatives that will form a Corridor to recruit French and French-immersion teachers to address a vital labour market need;
  • Consolidate the Francophone Integration Pathway and language training opportunities to address specific community needs and clienteles, such as immigrant women; and
  • Strengthen capacity to oversee and monitor IRCC’s actions in Francophone immigration.

If pressed on how these initiatives will help empower Francophone community organizations in fine-tuning solutions to address specific priorities, gaps and needs within their communities?

• A portion of these investments allocated to IRCC for the Action Plan will be delivered through grants and contributions funding.
• These investments will help continue consolidating the Francophone Integration Pathway with a focus on strengthening certain initiatives delivered by communities themselves, such as the WFCs, as well as on new initiatives, such as increased support for Francophone immigrant women.
• As part of the Corridor for the selection and retention of French teachers in Canada, new grants and contributions funding will be available for settlement activities, to strengthen services related to this clientele.
• New Grants and contributions funding will be allocated to the Centre for Innovation in Francophone immigration and its support program to:
  • Better respond to employers’ bilingual workforce needs;
  • Pilot the involvement of communities across the immigration continuum, in particular in promotion activities in Canada and abroad; and
  • Strengthen the Francophone lens in selection programs.
• These investments will also help expand on the geographic scope and enhance the quality of language training in both official languages for French-speaking and allophone newcomers.