Early Childhood: Fostering the Vitality of Francophone Minority Communities

1.1. Objectives

This report presents an overview of early childhood in Francophone communities^{Footnote 1} in order to identify key issues and opportunities. It also contains recommendations addressed to the Government of Canada, given the federal government’s commitment under Part VII of the Official Languages Act and the resulting obligations of federal institutions.

1.2. Methodology

1.3. Scope

In this report, “early childhood” is used to designate the preschool-age period, the age group of which may vary: for example, 0 to 4 years old or 0 to 6 years old.^{Footnote 2} It is a very broad concept that includes the parents’ experience, the prenatal stage and the preschool period. Initiatives that support early childhood development may include various programs and services, capacity building, research and partnerships between various interested parties (governments, community groups, parents, etc.)^{Footnote 3}

Because the issues surrounding early childhood development are very different in English-speaking minority communities, they are not addressed in this report. Although anglicization is as important in many English-speaking rural communities in Quebec as francization is among Francophones outside of Quebec,^{Footnote 4} organizations representing Quebec’s English-speaking communities say that early childhood services are not a major issue for all of these communities, because the majority of them are not afraid of losing their language. The Office of the Commissioner is nonetheless continuing its discussions on early childhood development needs and concerns with representatives of Quebec’s English-speaking communities.

It should be noted that a number of Francophone communities, particularly in New Brunswick and Ontario,^{Footnote 5} have access to bilingual or immersion services to make up for the lack of early childhood services in French. These services are often considered problematic for Francophones because they tend to be offered in English-dominant settings. This can result in bilingual services being perceived as a form of assimilation for French-speaking children, and community groups agree that these services are not an ideal solution. Because of the differences between the issues surrounding services in French and those surrounding bilingual or immersion services, the latter are not included in this report.

2.1. Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

In recent years, a number of cases before Canadian courts have sought to recognize the importance of minority community preschool programs,^{Footnote 6} since they are part of a child’s educational path and identity building.

Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees primary and secondary school instruction in the language of the minority for the children of rights holders, meaning Canadian citizens “whose first language learned and still understood is that of the English or French linguistic minority population of the province in which they reside, or who have received their primary school instruction in Canada in English or French and reside in a province where the language in which they received that instruction is the language of the English or French linguistic minority population of the province.”^{Footnote 7} Subsection 23(2) also guarantees this right to “citizens of Canada of whom any child has received or is receiving primary or secondary school instruction”^{Footnote page 7} in the language of the minority in the province or territory. Preschool programs are not explicitly mentioned in this provision.

The court cases involving preschool programs have primarily raised three issues relating to the interpretation of section 23: the constitutional status of preschool programs, how to calculate preschool spaces in order to make a comparison with majority-language schools, and the possibility of awarding remedies regarding preschool programs.

To date, there has been no consensus in the court decisions.^{Footnote 8} However, there has been discussion suggesting that applying section 23 to early childhood would be consistent with the intent of the constituent.^{Footnote 9} Regardless of whether they are recognized under section 23, preschool programs are considered by experts in the field to be important components to meet the objectives under section 23.^{Footnote 10} Early childhood is a significant source of children who have the right to instruction in the language of the minority, and it is important to maintain this source as a means to support the demographic, linguistic, cultural, institutional, social and community vitality of Francophone communities.

2.2. Part VII of the Official Languages Act

Part VII of the Official Languages Act sets out the federal government’s commitment to enhance the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada, to support and assist their development and to foster the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society. To meet this commitment, every federal institution has a duty to ensure that positive measures are taken to advance the equal status of both official languages in Canadian society and to promote the development and vitality of official language minority communities.

Part VII does not define what a positive measure is, nor does it specify the sectors to be targeted. As Commissioner of Official Languages Graham Fraser pointed out in his 2010–2011 annual report, “it essentially means a measure that has a real and constructive impact on the vitality of official language [minority] communities and on the advancement towards the equality of English and French in Canadian society.”^{Footnote 11} In the first two five-year official languages plans, federal institutions involved in early childhood development allocated investments to support this sector in Francophone communities.

In addition, under subsection 43(1)(d) of the Act, the Minister of Canadian Heritage must:

take such measures as that Minister considers appropriate to advance the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society, and … encourage and assist provincial governments to support the development of English and French linguistic minority communities generally and, in particular, to offer provincial and municipal services in both English and French and to provide opportunities for members of English or French linguistic minority communities to be educated in their own language.

2.3. Interventions by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

Between 2006 and 2016, Commissioner Fraser studied a variety of issues related to education, including high school and post-secondary education, as well as access to second-language instruction and to education in the language of the minority. Located at the beginning of the continuum, early childhood development is an area for positive, preventive and proactive intervention to revitalize the French language and Francophone communities.

The Office of the Commissioner’s interventions are part of an effort to encourage federal institutions to take positive measures within the meaning of Part VII of the Act to support early childhood development in Francophone communities. In 2014–2015, the Office of the Commissioner established a dialogue with key partners in the field of early childhood and began to gather information and to identify and better understand the current gaps. These interventions included meetings and discussions with representatives of several communities and federal institutions. The interventions are particularly timely, given the development of the next multi-year official languages plan, the interest in early childhood development expressed by certain parliamentarians, and other upcoming public policy changes that may have an impact on this sector and on the communities.

3.1. Early childhood in Canada

Early childhood is a crucial period for the cognitive, social and emotional development of children.^{Footnote 12} The early years of a child’s life are also a critical period for language acquisition.^{Footnote 13} A growing body of research recognizes that early childhood education and care bring a wide range of benefits, including better well-being for the child, better learning outcomes, reduced poverty, increased intergenerational social mobility, more female labour market participation and better social and economic development for the society at large.^{Footnote 14}

However, these benefits depend on the quality of the services offered. Expanding access to services without ensuring quality will not deliver positive outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society. Furthermore, research has shown that poor-quality services can have long-lasting detrimental effects on child development.^{Footnote 14}

Service quality and accessibility are all the more important because most Canadian parents work and have growing needs for services for their children. In a 2008 report on early childhood education and care services, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pointed out that “today’s rising generation in the countries of the [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] is the first in which a majority are spending a large part of their early childhoods not in their own homes with their own families but in some form of child care.”^{Footnote 15} In 2014, nearly two million families with two parents and at least one child under 16 (69%) were dual-earner families, which was up from one million (36%) in 1976. In nearly three quarters of these families, both parents worked full time.^{Footnote 16}

Parents’ transition to the labour market and children’s transition to structured care “can be a step forward or a step back, depending on how seriously countries take all aspects of child development in establishing child services. translation”^{Footnote 17} However, OECD and UNICEF ranked Canada last among Western nations in terms of support for family policy and early childhood development.^{Footnote 18} According to OECD, child and family outcomes in Canada could be improved if affordable and quality-assured child care services were more widely available during the early years and throughout compulsory school.^{Footnote 19}

3.2. Early childhood in Francophone communities

In minority communities, early childhood is particularly important, on both an individual and a community level. For young children, this is a key time in terms of learning the French language, building identity and developing a sense of belonging to the community. It is also a critical period for community vitality and development.

Canada’s fertility rate has declined significantly since the 1960s.^{Footnote 20} This phenomenon is even more pronounced among French-speaking Canadians, who transitioned from over-fertility to under-fertility.^{Footnote 21} In addition, immigration has become the primary driver of Canadian population growth; however, it has not benefited Francophone communities to the same extent, because immigrants settling outside of Quebec are more likely to adopt English as their first official language.^{Footnote 22}

In Francophone communities, this demographic loss is magnified by various factors, including language transmission from French-speaking parents to their children. The data indicates that English is the official language spoken most often at home by over half of children in Francophone communities, except in New Brunswick.^{Footnote 23}

The critical role of early childhood in fostering French language transmission, community development and attendance of French-language schools has been raised in various key documents developed by the communities since the early 2000s, including CNPF’s Partir en français plan (2003), the Table nationale en développement de la petite enfance’s (now GRINPE) Cadre national de collaboration en développement de la petite enfance francophone en contexte minoritaire au Canada (2005), the Forum des Leaders’ Plan stratégique communautaire (2008) and the Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones’s Plan stratégique sur l’éducation de langue française 2012-2017.^{Footnote 24}

In its 2011 report, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages summarized the importance of early childhood development for French-language school recruitment as follows: “Child care centres and early childhood and family centres are veritable nurseries that feed Francophone minority schools.”^{Footnote 25} Many experts have also observed positive outcomes in terms of learning, communication, comprehension and vocabulary in young children when they start school if they have been exposed to French between the ages of 0 and 5.^{Footnote 26}

3.3. Statistical portrait and demographic trends

The following statistical portrait presents an overview of the characteristics of young children in Francophone communities.

Despite a certain increase in absolute numbers, the proportion of Francophones has been declining for nearly half a century in Canada, outside of Quebec. Between 1951 and 2006, for example, the proportion of the population whose mother tongue^{Footnote 27} is French decreased from 7.3% to 4.1% (see Appendix, Table 1). The increase in the number of Canadians outside of Quebec whose mother tongue is French is primarily in populations aged 35 and over. The under-30 population has seen its numbers decrease significantly from 1971 to 2006. The number of children aged 0 to 4 whose mother tongue is French has decreased by nearly half, from close to 70,000 in 1971 to just under 35,000 in 2006.^{Footnote 28}

Between 1986 and 2006, the estimated number of children aged 5 to 17 who were eligible for French-language education under section 23 of the Charter decreased continuously by over one quarter (see Appendix, Table 2). This is primarily due to the low birth rate, low levels of Francophone immigration and linguistic assimilation. In some communities, it is also the result of the population’s migration to other communities, regions, provinces or territories. All of these factors are major trends.^{Footnote 29}

In 2006, of a total of 63,855 rights-holder children of preschool age (0 to 4 years), 38,725 (61%) were part of exogamous Francophone families (in which only one parent is French-speaking) and 19,145 (30%) were part of endogamous Francophone families (in which both parents are French-speaking). Just over half (32,955) spoke French as their mother tongue (see Appendix, table Table 3). Moreover, among all the children, 29,150 spoke French most often at home, and 7,595 spoke French regularly, for a total of 36,745 who spoke French at least regularly at home. A greater number of children (37,525) had knowledge of French.

According to the most recent Census data, there were 1,435,005 children under the age of 5 in Canada outside Quebec in 2011. The first official language spoken (FOLS)^{Footnote 30} for 34,525 (2.4%) of them was French, and the FOLS for 5,530 (0.4%) of them was both English and French (see Appendix, Table 4). In contrast, the FOLS for over one million (92.1%) of them was English, and the FOLS for 73,790 (5.1%) of them was neither English nor French. French was the mother tongue of 33,145 (2.3%) children under the age of 5; 7,730 spoke both English and French as their mother tongue; 850 spoke both French and a non-official language as their mother tongue; and 935 spoke English, French and a non-official language as their mother tongue (see Appendix, Table 5). French was the only language spoken most often at home for 31,440 (2.2%) children under the age of 5; for 5,275 children, it was English and French; for 670 children, it was French and a non-official language; and for 940 children, it was English, French and a non-official language (see Appendix, Table 6).

In summary, demographic trends show a decrease in the proportion of Canadians who speak French, in the number of young Francophones and in the number of children eligible for French-language schooling.

3.4. Types of services

In Francophone communities, there are several models for early childhood service centres, and the terminology and types of services available vary from one province or territory to another. For example, there are early childhood and family centres (CPEFs), early childhood centres, family and child support centres, and multiservice family and child resource centres. Starting at the early childhood stage, these centres welcome and assist French-speaking families by providing family services such as reading and play groups.^{Footnote 31} In Manitoba, for example, CPEFs provide a full range of integrated services and resources for French-speaking parents and children (from 0 to 6) in 12 schools within the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine. A satellite CPEF service is also provided in two schools.^{Footnote 32}

Early childhood services can range from prenatal services to various educational, cultural and social services. These services may include “perinatal and preventive health services (professional speech-language pathology, nursing care, occupational therapy, etc.), centre-based, school-based or home-based child care, various family services (French-language support, literacy, cultural activities, etc.), pre-kindergarten and kindergarten school liaison, and resources for parents (toy library, play group, support group, etc.) translation”^{Footnote 33} Even though some CPEFs also offer child care services, their primary mandate is to “provide a range of health promotion, early intervention, specialized support, prevention and support services to parents translation”^{Footnote 34} in French.

In Canada, there are two broad categories of child care services: licensed and unlicensed. Licensed centres are regulated provincially and inspected regularly by the province to ensure compliance with provincial standards. Unlicensed child care providers, which are often home-based, are not regulated, although some home-based child care providers are also licensed and therefore regulated and monitored.^{Footnote 35} In minority communities, public or private child care services, as opposed to home-based care, seem to offer “greater stability in terms of educational offer and structure translation”^{Footnote 36} and help foster a sense of identity and belonging because they are part of a community network of institutions and people.^{Footnote 36}

3.5. Role of the federal government

Historically, the federal government’s responsibility with regard to families (including early childhood services) has been limited to transferring funds to provincial and territorial governments, which have constitutional jurisdiction in this area. Funding transfer agreements may be made in areas such a health, family support, post-secondary education and social programs. In 2000, the federal, provincial and territorial First Ministers signed an agreement “to improve and expand early childhood development supports for young children (prenatal to age six) and for their parents.”^{Footnote 37} Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is responsible for the early childhood development initiative, in partnership with the Department of Finance Canada and the provincial and territorial governments.^{Footnote 37} Since 2004–2005, the Canada Social Transfer has been the primary federal-provincial-territorial transfer mechanism for early childhood development and early learning and child care.^{Footnote 38}

The federal government can also support early childhood through specific transfers (e.g., Canada Child Benefit and Employment Insurance maternity and parental benefits) or tax expenditure (e.g., the Child Tax Credit, the Child Care Expense Deduction and the Investment Tax Credit for Child Care Spaces).

Through the Social Development Partnerships Program, ESDC “supports the social infrastructure of Canadian society through investment in not-for-profit organizations to help improve life outcomes for people with disabilities, children and families, and other vulnerable populations.”^{Footnote 39} The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) manages child health programs and provides a variety of resources for parents and future parents. PHAC’s Community Action Program for Children supports a wide range of initiatives, including “child [0–6 years] health and development activities, parenting skills programs, nutritional support and collective kitchens, physical activity programs, outreach and home visits.”^{Footnote 40} The federal government is also responsible for programs for First Nations and Inuit, newcomers and military families. Federal government programs and spending in early childhood education and care are therefore the responsibility of a variety of federal institutions, including ESDC; the Department of Finance Canada; Health Canada; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces; PHAC and Service Canada.^{Footnote 41}

In 2003, as part of the 2003-2008 Action Plan for Official Languages, coordinated by Canadian Heritage, the federal government announced investments in early childhood development in Francophone communities. Specifically, funds were allocated to two national research and analysis initiatives: a child care pilot project ($10.8 million) and support for non-governmental organizations ($3.8 million).

These two initiatives, which were the responsibility of ESDC (then called Human Resources and Skills Development Canada), were renewed in the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013: Acting for the Future, with budgets of $13.5 million and $4 million, respectively. They were intended to promote awareness of the importance of early childhood development, as well as to strengthen and improve access to programs and services available in official language minority communities.

Despite the success of these two initiatives, the Roadmap for Canada’s Official Languages 2013-2018: Education, Immigration, Communities does not provide for any specific funding for early childhood development. However, it does include a new initiative under the Social Development Partnerships Program: the Social Partnership Initiative in Official Language Minority Communities. This initiative targets a broader clientele than early childhood, including youth, seniors and vulnerable populations. It also encourages communities “to find new revenue sources to develop community-based activities that address the social and economic issues that affect them.”^{Footnote 42}

4.1. Language transmission and exogamy

A language can be transmitted to a child in several ways over time. It can be done by parents, by contemporaries (siblings or peers) or even by grandparents, and can take place both within and outside of the family environment.^{Footnote 43} Because parents make a number of choices about the language spoken in the first few months after the child’s birth, or even before,^{Footnote 44} the transmission of French as a mother tongue starting in early childhood is of particular importance for the development and continued vitality of Francophone communities.

In 2006, in Francophone communities, French was the official language spoken most often at home by parents of very young children in 44% of cases. Excluding New Brunswick and Ontario, this percentage was between 22% and 35% (see Appendix, Table 7). When the minority language is not widely spoken at home, child care, kindergarten and school may be the only socialization opportunities where the minority language is dominant.^{Footnote 45}

Between 1991 and 2011, the proportion of children aged 17 and under living in an exogamous family outside Quebec increased from just under 57% to nearly 67%.^{Footnote 46} During this period, the transmission rate of French as a mother tongue among all families in Canada outside Quebec with at least one French-speaking parent stayed steady, at close to 50%. Among endogamous Francophone families, the transmission rate also stayed steady, at over 91%. Among exogamous families, the rate varied, depending on the family structure, but was higher when the mother was Francophone. It also grew steadily and significantly, regardless of the family structure. The transmission rate in exogamous families with a French-speaking mother increased from 23% to nearly 39% between 1991 and 2011. During the same period, it grew from 10% to 19% among exogamous families with a French-speaking father (see Appendix, table Table 8). The increase in transmission of French among exogamous families may be attributable to the knowledge of French among an increasing number of non-Francophone spouses or to an increase in the status of the French language.^{Footnote 47}

While it is often associated with a low transmission rate, exogamy does not in and of itself prevent the transmission of the French language.^{Footnote 48} Language transmission may depend on various factors, including the family structure (see Appendix, Tables table 3 and table 8) and the language dynamic within the family. It is possible for a child in an exogamous family to acquire the same French skills as a child in an endogamous family “when the French-speaking parent ensures that the French language is an important part of the child’s life, when the parents want their child to achieve a high level of skill in both languages, and when the child has a feeling of belonging to both communities. translation”^{Footnote 49}

For many, the very notion of exogamy has evolved as a result of the growing diversity of Francophone communities. “Traditionally, we would see an exogamous couple with one English-speaking spouse and one French-speaking spouse. However, exogamy in 2016 also includes couples with one French-speaking spouse and one spouse whose mother tongue is neither English nor French and who may identify as an Anglophone or a Francophone. translation”^{Footnote 50} The members of a working group that was created as part of a recent initiative by the Department of Canadian Heritage^{Footnote 51} on French language transmission to young Francophones in minority communities found the same thing:

In many cases, French is not the family’s first—or only—language. In the case of newcomers, for example, French may be the FOLS, but not a mother tongue. In an exogamous situation, the acquisition of French is not necessarily exclusive; it can occur at the same time as the acquisition of English or of another language. We also have to think of transmission as a long process that begins during pregnancy and continues throughout childhood and adolescence. translation^{Footnote 52}

The working group considered several factors that contribute to increased transmission of French to young Francophones in minority communities. These factors fall under three broad categories—parents, children and youth, and the broader context of community institutions and society—and include parents’ perceptions of early childhood services in French, their access to early childhood services in French and the resources available to support their children in French.^{Footnote 53} Because of the issues related to language transmission and exogamy, Francophone community representatives would particularly like to have the capacity to give parents—including those from exogamous families—the resources, guidance and support they need.^{Footnote 44}

4.2. Two levels of government and a wide range of institutions

Programs and services for young children have been developed with various systems of governance, funding streams and training for staff. As a result, families face a highly fragmented early childhood landscape of unconnected options, diverse eligibility criteria and payment requirements.^{Footnote 54} All provincial and territorial governments provide early childhood services, but the models vary widely from one province or territory to the next, or even within the same province, depending on the service and the provider.

During an appearance before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages, CNPF stressed the importance of adopting an integrated service model: “We don’t just want child care services; we want more than that. We would like our health services, literacy services for parents and maternity services, for example, to be attached to a Francophone community that would be near the school.”^{Footnote 55} Models like the ones used by CPEFs are preferred by a number of community organizations because they allow for a multisector approach to programming, service delivery, and resource allocation. This is thought to have a wide variety of benefits, including better coordination of services, easy access to a wide variety of French-language services, approaches tailored to the needs and circumstances of each community, and a solid sense of the family being a part of the community.^{Footnote 56}

The Office of the Commissioner’s consultation conducted on February 10, 2016, revealed that despite efforts to introduce an integrated model, fragmentation among two levels of government and a wide range of institutions remains a significant issue for early childhood development in Francophone communities. This fragmentation leads to disparities in service delivery, isolation of child care centres and CPEFs, a lack of accessibility and resources, and the absence of national standards. Community representatives also decried the absence of a provincial or territorial service structure or grouping of services.

Provinces establish their own guidelines for spending and programs. The organizations consulted agreed that in order to address this issue, there needs to be a national cross-sector policy on early childhood development in Francophone communities, and that the policy should be based on federal-provincial-territorial cooperation. This would require a common approach to early childhood development with consistent goals, and clearly-defined roles and responsibilities for governments and communities.^{Footnote 57}

4.3. Lack of funding

During the study conducted by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages on the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013, several witnesses from Francophone communities emphasized that French-language early childhood services suffer from a systemic shortage of resources. This means that, in many communities, “child care centres, early childhood centres and existing family and childhood centres cannot meet the rising demand for early childhood services in French.”^{Footnote 58}

During the formal consultation conducted by the Office of the Commissioner on February 10, 2016, the lack of funding emerged as the most pressing issue in terms of early childhood services. The organizations that were consulted stressed that this issue is not specific to Francophone communities—it affects the entire early childhood sector. However, the impact on Francophone communities is much more pronounced. The lack of resources puts service providers in an unstable situation and reduces communities’ ability to support parents, service providers and volunteers. The organizations also said that in the absence of sufficient public funding, services depend on limited private funding that often comes from the parents.

Under the 2003–2008 Action Plan and the 2008–2013 Roadmap, the envelopes earmarked for early childhood initiatives were $14.6 million and $17.5 million, respectively. However, these were not renewed in the 2013–2018 Roadmap. Therefore, given the broader clientele targeted by the Social Partnership Initiative in Official Language Minority Communities, coupled with the substantial reduction in the budget envelope compared with what was allocated in the previous five-year plans, communities have received little federal funding specifically for early childhood development since 2013. In addition, the Initiative’s requirement to find external funding sources is a problem for many organizations. As a result, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada has requested federal government support to conduct an impact study in order to assess the viability of this funding strategy for Francophone communities.^{Footnote 59}

Three additional issues arise from the lack of funding: a shortage of staff and training, insufficient infrastructure and a lack of awareness among parents and service providers.

5.1. The next official languages plan

Historically, the 2003–2008 Action Plan and the 2008–2013 Roadmap were important initiatives to channel federal government support to early childhood development in Francophone communities. The 2013–2018 Roadmap will soon come to an end; however, the federal government has announced its intention not only to develop a new multi-year official languages plan to enhance the vitality of English and French linguistic minority communities, but also to consult official language minority communities in doing so. These consultations should make it possible to clearly identify the needs of Francophone communities. The next action plan will also be a valuable opportunity to plan for investments to meet the specific early childhood development needs of Francophone communities.

5.2. National early learning and child care framework

In his mandate letter to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, the Prime Minister asked the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos to “work with the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs to launch consultations with provinces and territories and Indigenous Peoples on a national early learning and child care framework as a first step towards delivering affordable, high-quality, flexible and fully inclusive child care.”^{Footnote 77} In the 2016 federal budget, the Government of Canada announced an investment of “$500 million in 2017–18 to support the establishment of a National Framework on Early Learning and Child Care.”^{Footnote 78}

The consultations and the development of the framework in cooperation with a wide variety of private- and public-sector partners will be ideal opportunities to identify approaches that would address the issues specific to Francophone communities.