Quebec slashes assistance for part-time French courses, launches ad campaign to promote French [Video]

The Quebec government has decided to cut financial assistance for people enrolling in part-time, French-language courses and to spend $2.5 million on a new advertising campaign to encourage Quebecers to speak more French.

Financial support for the care of children or disabled dependents will be maintained and Francisation Québec courses will remain free.

This comes at a time when wait lists are getting longer, according to Carl Ouellet, president of the Association québécoise du personnel de direction des écoles, which represents school principals.

“We’re not able to open other groups because we lack funds. We lack subsidies, and that’s unfortunate because we know it, in recent years, more immigrants have arrived in Quebec,” said Ouellet. “We want workers who speak French.”

He added that training centres and schools are ready to welcome newcomers, but they’re struggling to offer francization services. 

Ouellet also worries about staff shortages across the province. 

“The labour shortage is going to be exacerbated by the additional difficulty we have in …