The CAQ promises $10 million to restore classes, but as some people welcome the news, they also call it a Band-Aid solution.
“It’s like a little Band-Aid on a boo-boo,” said francization teacher Virginie Marquis, who teaches francization courses at the Centre d’éducation des adultes Outremont. She believes she will be out of a job by the spring if the funding is not restored at her school.
“More than 15,000 people will remain deprived of lessons if the government limits itself to this extension,” a group of teachers called the Collectif francisation wrote in a statement to The Gazette. “It barely covers two years of operation of a large francization centre.”
The Collectif francisation acknowledges the $10 million “gives a little breathing room,” but “this amount cannot sustainably resolve this brutal shortage of French language offerings caused by budget cuts targeting the school boards.”
“I hope all the teachers who lost their jobs will come back soon,” said Asli Vatansever, a francization student at the Outremont school who moved to Montreal from Istanbul four years ago.
“I’m actually hoping the government will take more steps like that,” adding the positive news is “a good motivation for me and for everyone participating in this course.”
Following the funding announcement, Roberge told journalists “Quebec’s capacity to pay is not infinite,” adding he hopes to reduce the demand for francization classes by lowering the number of immigrants to “Quebec territory.”
Vatansever said many of her friends from French class are moving to other provinces because of the new regulations. “Even though they learned French, they’re not eligible to apply for permanent residency” with the new immigration restrictions, she said.
Vatansever, who worked in tech and UX design before dedicating herself to French classes full time, is still hopeful she can get permanent residency, but said it’s no guarantee. “If you’re an immigrant, all the situations are always ambiguous,” she said. “When you have no country, you never feel safe.”
Philip Authier of The Gazette contributed to this report.