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Official-language minorities
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An official-language minority is either a French-speaker or French-speaking population living outside of Quebec, where English is predominant, or an English-speaker or English-speaking population living in Quebec, where French is predominant. The government, in its Official Languages Act of 1988, committed to “enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada.”
In 2006, 8% of Quebec’s population had English as their mother tongue and 4% of Canada excluding Quebec, had French.
Most adult French-speakers living outside Quebec (78%) and most adult English-speakers inside Quebec (87%) felt that being able to use their language in their daily life was important, according to the 2006 Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities. Most French-speakers outside Quebec and English-speakers in Quebec felt it was important to have their linguistic rights respected with regard to, for example, receiving an education or accessing federal government services.
How much people care about these rights varies: 91% of French-speakers who did not feel comfortable using English felt strongly about these rights, while 79% of French-speakers who feel equally comfortable in both languages felt the same way.
French-speakers outside Quebec seemed generally optimistic about the continuing presence of French in their community: only 25% of French-speaking adults outside Quebec believed that French will lose ground during the next 10 years. Their English-speaking counterparts in Quebec are more pessimistic about the future presence of English in their community: 36% believed
