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VICTORIA – Ensuring continued francophone services in British Columbia and raising the profile of the B.C. francophone community will top the agenda of John van Dongen, Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations, as he attends the annual meeting of the Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie in Halifax, Sept. 12 and 13.
“The Province’s francophone community has much to offer and is our active and valued partner,” van Dongen said. “I will be looking for a plan to renew the agreements we have with the federal government on French-language services to help ensure B.C. remains a welcoming province for French-speakers and allow us to attract new francophone immigrants to B.C.
Federal funding to provinces and territories under the Intergovernmental Co-operation on Minority-Languages Services Program is set to expire in March 2009. British Columbia will press to ensure this funding continues, to continue supporting French-language programs and services.
“Francophones have played an active role throughout B.C.’s history. In fact, in the 1850s, when B.C. was established as a Crown colony, francophones made up 60 per cent of the European population in B.C.,” van Dongen said. “I will be profiling the many contributions of our francophone community over B.C.’s past 150 years.”
“The francophone community is very proud of its many contributions to our province,” said Michelle Rakotonaivo, president of la Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique, “And the partnership we have developed over the years with our provincial government is adding vigour to our ability to contribute even more forcefully to improving the province’s competitiveness and quality of life.”
The conference is an intergovernmental forum to maintain a
dialogue that fosters the development of public policies that strengthen
Canada’s linguistic duality. The conference was created in 1994.
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contact: |
Communications Manager Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat 250 356-7373 |
Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique 604 732-1420 |
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For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca. |
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