Reference Material

2023, Government of Canada: Departmental Plan 2023-24 – Canadian Heritage (PDF page 47)

• “A competent workforce is essential so that the provinces and territories can continue to provide quality French-language education in French as a second language programs, including French immersion, as well as in French-language schools. There is a risk that labour shortage will continue to have a direct impact on the recruitment and retention of French-language teachers across the country. To mitigate this risk, the Department will continue to support several projects to counter the shortage of French-language teachers across the country, including a symposium on teacher recruitment and retention. We will also continue to work with the provinces and territories to find solutions to alleviate problems caused by the labour shortage.”

2023, Government of Canada: Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028: Protection-Promotion-Collaboration

• “Supporting teacher recruitment and retention: Up to $15.2 million over five years to strengthen teacher recruitment and retention in minority French-language schools and French second-language programs.”

2019, Government of Canada: Statistics on official languages in Canada

• “More and more young people study their second language (…) 449,745 of them are in French immersion programs outside Quebec.”

2019, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages: A study on challenges in French-as-a-second-language education teacher supply and demand in Canada

• “Learning one’s second official language in a school setting is particularly important for Canadians whose first official language is English: 79% of Anglophone respondents who could speak French stated that they learned the language in elementary or high school. Respondents also identified lack of access to language courses as the most common barrier to learning a second official language.”

2019, The National Table for French as a Second Language: About Us

• “The NTFSL aims to: discuss common issues related to learning French as a second language, facilitate the sharing of information, expertise, winning practices and solutions, and promote consultation and collaboration among members.”

2021-11-04, Canadian Association of Immersion Professionals: Canada needs 10,000 teachers to address its French immersion and FSL teacher shortage

• “Nearly half (42%) of schools offering FI programs are currently experiencing a shortage of teachers for their program. This represents a shortage of between 1,000 and 1,400 full-time equivalent (FTE) FI teachers across the country.” 

2023-07-07, Canadian Association of Immersion Professionals: Recruitment in university education programs: a solution to increase the pool of new FSL teachers?

• “Education faculties are struggling to meet the demand for qualified teachers for French immersion programs. • There is no Canada-wide trend in enrolment rates in education and French as a second language teacher training programs. • Education faculties suffer from a lack of financial and human resources. • Program administrative requirements are barriers to enrollment and can lead to dropout. • There are few mitigating measures in place. • Prospective teachers are dropping out before graduation or transitioning out of the profession.”

2023-07-08, Toronto Star: Francophonie ministers stress collaboration on official languages action plan

• “The council says it’s pleased the 4.4 % target for francophone immigration outside Quebec was achieved in 2022.”