Bonjour!
And a good day indeed for the Francophone community in Prince George.
The Northern Capital was announced as being one of 14 communities to participate in a pilot project. The hope is to ease the transition of French-speaking immigrants as they settle, blend in, and ultimately thrive as citizens in their new community.
According to Michel Bouchard, President of the Cercle des Canadiens Francais de Prince George, said there are two elements to the project. The first is the initial service provided to the french-speaking community that’s already established in the city, as well as any new residents that might relocate to Prince George. With that, he’s then hoping that they will establish Prince George as a preferred destination for new immigrants from around the world.
“There is a very strong tradition [in Prince George],” Bouchard told MyPGNow. “If you look around, in terms of the various industries, there has always been a tradition in the sense that we’ve brought in this spirit of bringing in new community members. I think we want to continue to build upon it in both official languages, French and English, as well as working with and being respectful towards our First Nations as well.”
To launch the assistance in the settlement of Francophone immigrants, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration has offered the City of Prince George with $431,000 of funding per year for three years, from April 2020 to April 2023.
“This amount gives us the opportunity to develop effective actions to improve the welcoming of francophone immigrants,” said Archer. “It is also a mark of the recognition by the federal government of the capacities of the francophone minority communities to develop ambitious projects by the francophone for the francophone.”
According to the President of the Francophone Federation of British Columbia Padminee Chundunsing, in order to have a sustainable francophone community, they need to be at least four per cent of the population. As of right now, french-speaking residents represent 1.6 per cent of the population with 29 per cent being immigrants.
Bouchard said that some of the struggles that come in integrating yourself into a new community comes with the networking and meeting new people. He touched on the topic that many immigrants are coming with high levels of education, however, the challenge is then acquiring the language skills so people can ease the transition and still remain in the line of work that they have been used to.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
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