Small Cabinet No Excuse to Scrub Official Languages Portfolio

Wanting a smaller cabinet is no excuse for deleting the Official Languages portfolio. For the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada, the national voice of Canada’s Francophone minority communities, the disappearance of this portfolio in new Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet is unacceptable – especially in current circumstances.

“We’re not taking issue with the personal convictions of the new minister of Culture and Canadian Identity, Steven Guilbeault, regarding French, and it is encouraging to see that several ministers are bilingual. The problem is that deleting the portfolio waters down the importance of our official languages at a time when emphasis should be put on everything that contributes to Canada’s national sovereignty. It sends the message that official languages are inexistent in terms of Canadian identity,” comments FCFA president Liane Roy.

The FCFA notes that it’s the first time in 10 years that a cabinet has no ministerial Official Languages portfolio, in what is also the greatest re-engineering of the cultural portfolio since the department of Canadian Heritage was created in 1993.

The FCFA is encouraged, however, to see Ginette Petitpas-Taylor back as President of the Treasury Board, the federal institution responsible for taking regulations for the implementation of the new Official Languages Act. In fact, Minister Petitpas-Taylor was responsible in a large part for the modernization of the Act in 2023.

“Also encouraging is the nomination of Rachel Bendayan as minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. A few weeks ago, she met with our organization and our national network and we were pleased with her openness regarding our communities,” says Ms. Roy.

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