Olga Pyroh outside the Ottawa Street location of Centre Saint-Michel in Sherbrooke, Que., on Jan. 7. Quebec recently cut French language classes throughout the province, affecting thousands of adult learners and further straining a system already plagued by delays and roadblocks.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
Olga Pyroh landed in Quebec in 2022 and started taking French classes the following year.
The Ukrainian economist, who fled the war back home with her son, was learning part-time in the mornings at the Centre Saint-Michel, a school for adults, before going to work at the University of Sherbrooke.
In October, she found out her government-funded course would be cancelled within weeks.
“We were in shock because me and all my colleagues wanted to learn French more,” Ms. Pyroh said in a phone interview, starting in hesitant French before switching to English. “It was very difficult to understand the logic of the government.”
Quebec Premier François Legault has repeatedly portrayed immigrants as a threat to the province’s official language. On Thursday, the government will introduce legislation that will provide a new integration model for immigrants that will require newcomers to adhere to Quebec values such as gender equality and secularism and emphasize French as the official language of the province.
Mr. Legault’s government has introduced more requirements and incentives for newcomers to learn French – and an increasing number of immigrants want to. Despite that, it recently cut French language classes throughout the province, affecting thousands of adult learners and further straining a system already plagued by delays and roadblocks.
While some students are English-speaking Canadians, most are recent newcomers who must pass a French proficiency test to stay in the province permanently. Ms. Pyroh, who plans to take the test in March, has made good progress but still needs to sharpen her skills.
Frederic Bouchard teaches a French language class at the Centre Saint-Michel. The facility offered eight levels of French language classes, but currently has five cohorts of low-level students left.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
The government says budgets for adult French learning were not cut last year, but the closing of classes resulted partly from the Ministry of Education’s decision to allocate 2024-25 funds based on student numbers from 2020-21, a pandemic year with lower enrolment. Ministry spokesperson Bryan St-Louis said in an e-mail that data for that year were “the most precise and representative at the time of the analyses.”
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However, the number of adult French learners more than doubled between 2018-19 and 2023-24, from about 31,000 to nearly 69,000, according to an annual report by the Commissaire à la langue française, one of Quebec’s language watchdogs. More than 45,000 people were waiting for French classes in September, a number the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) said in an e-mail dropped to 37,000 in January. Quebec welcomed more than 213,000 immigrants in 2023-24.
Even before the recent cuts, classes were insufficient to meet demand.
Francisation Québec, the province’s public one-stop shop for adult French learners, was set up in 2023 to simplify access to courses but has been rife with issues from the start. In a May, 2024, report, the Commissaire found that prospective part-time students spent an average of 86 business days on a wait-list after completing an application, leading many to give up before ever enrolling. The registration form was only available in French, which “was noted as an irritant by several stakeholders,” the Commissaire wrote.
Opposition parties at the National Assembly have denounced the cuts. In December, the Commissaire said in a statement that he was concerned “about the impact of service disruptions on students” and stressed the importance of swiftly transferring them to other classes.
Some groups survived the fall cuts at the Centre Saint-Michel, only to be cancelled by the end of January.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
The next day, Quebec announced it would redirect $10-million to give 5,000 more people access to French classes before April. But the Collectif francisation, an advocacy group founded by teachers affected by the cuts, has estimated that more than 13,000 students have lost their French classes. MIFI spokesperson Marie-Luce Garant said in an e-mail that she could not confirm this number but that 7,679 people were “sent back to Francisation Québec” as of December.
Vincent Vachon, a co-founder and spokesperson for the Collectif, said the government’s pledge won’t meet the need. “What we are currently offering are just smoke and mirrors,” he said in a phone interview.
Some groups survived the fall cuts at the Centre Saint-Michel, only to be cancelled by the end of January. Frédéric Bouchard, one of the remaining teachers, is both angry and dejected by the government’s decision.
“We have lots of immigrants who come here, who want to learn French, who want to integrate and be part of our society,” Mr. Bouchard said in an interview. The cuts will widen the gap between them and the rest of Quebec, he said, as they’ll have trouble accessing services and the job market.
Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s minister responsible for immigration and the French language, has defended the government’s efforts. “Quebeckers’ ability to pay is not infinite. And yet, we are doing more than ever” to teach immigrants French, he said during a debate at the National Assembly in December. Mr. Roberge’s office did not answer multiple requests to interview him for this story.
Francisco Monroy and Gina Chaves, two students in Mr. Bouchard's level 3 French class, do exercises in class at Centre Saint-Michel.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
Many French teachers were laid off because of the class cuts. Some, such as Alex Lepage, went from the Centre Saint-Michel to newly set-up courses at the Cégep de Sherbrooke. The public school is for students mostly between high school and university, but some Centre Saint-Michel learners were able to follow their teachers there.
Mr. Lepage said the transition was chaotic. At first, students were assigned to groups without regard for their proficiency level and instructors didn’t know which textbook to use.
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For the experienced teacher, this also meant going from a stable, full-time job to a precarious nine hours a week and no pay for work done outside the classroom, such as grading. “We are cheap labour” now, Mr. Lepage said in a phone interview.
The surge in French learners and the cuts have created an opportunity for the private sector. Arnaud Hétu, who also taught French in public schools, opened the Lingua Franca school in Montreal in January. The school, which charges $580 a month for part-time classes, serves 45 students and is looking to expand as a dozen more are on wait-lists, Mr. Hétu said in a phone interview. “There’s a huge demand right now,” he said.
A nurse by training, Enrique De Jesus Avila Gonzalez hopes to resume public French classes by the end of the year so he can restart his career.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
But private classes aren’t a feasible option for everyone. Enrique De Jesus Avila Gonzalez, an asylum seeker from Mexico who previously studied at the Centre Saint-Michel, tried them for a couple of weeks after being told to register again with Francisation Québec when he applied to continue his learning at the Cégep. But he couldn’t afford the $60 his teacher charged for 90-minute sessions.
A nurse by training who works night shifts at a factory, Mr. Gonzalez hopes to resume public French classes by the end of the year so he can restart his career. “I know that Quebec needs a lot of health care professionals,” Mr. Gonzalez said in a phone interview, alternating between French and Spanish.
For Ms. Pyroh, who looks after her son in the evenings, the Cégep classes weren’t practical because they were only offered at night. In January, after a nearly three-month hiatus in her learning, she was able to enroll in online classes that fit her schedule.
“Of course, it was better at the Centre,” she said.