Quebec wants 100% francophone or 'francotropic' immigration, specifies minister
In the future, Quebec will want to select 100 per cent francophone or 'francotropic' immigrants, Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette said Wednesday.
'Francotropes' may have Arabic, Vietnamese, Laotian, Creole, Catalan, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish or Swahili as their mother tongue.
According to the accepted definition, a 'francotrope' is a person whose mother tongue is not French, but who comes from a culture or region with affinities to that language.
Fréchette thus qualified the comments of Premier François Legault, who, the day before, said he wanted to select 100 per cent francophone immigrants by 2026.
Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon suggested that there would be 'exceptions' in certain sectors of activity.
According to him, "we have to be realistic and balance this with the needs."
Fitzgibbon gave the example of steel producer Posco, which will open a plant in Bécancour and will need South Korean experts.
"Obviously, there are not many South Koreans who speak French. We have to accept that," he said in a press scrum. "We have to use our judgment."
- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 30, 2022
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quake deaths pass 5,000 as Turkiye, Syria seek survivors
Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkiye and neighboring Syria, with the discovery of more bodies raising the death toll to more than 5,000.

Will Biden's second state of the union mark a less protectionist approach to Canada?
A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians still see the United States as their country's closest ally, even in an age of isolationism and protectionist policies.
Thieves cut huge hole in Ottawa restaurant wall to get at jewelry store next door
An Ottawa restaurateur says he was shocked to find his restaurant broken into and even more surprised to discover a giant hole in the wall that led to the neighbouring jewelry store.
New details emerge ahead of Trudeau-premiers' health-care meeting
As preparations are underway for the anticipated health-care 'working meeting' between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's premiers on Tuesday, new details are emerging about how the much-anticipated federal-provincial gathering will unfold.
China says will 'safeguard interests' over balloon shootdown
China said Tuesday it will 'resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests' over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon by the United States, as relations between the two countries deteriorate further. The balloon prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a highly-anticipated visit to Beijing this week that had offered slight hopes for an improvement in relations.
Mendicino: foreign-agent registry would need equity lens, could be part of 'tool box'
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says a registry to track foreign agents operating in Canada can only be implemented in lockstep with diverse communities.
Quebec minister 'surprised' asylum seekers given free bus tickets from New York City
Quebec's immigration minister says she was 'surprised' to learn the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada.
Vaccine intake higher among people who knew someone who died of COVID-19: U.S. survey
A U.S. survey found that people who had a personal connection to someone who became ill or died of COVID-19 were more likely to have received at least one shot of the vaccine compared to those who didn’t have any loved ones who had been impacted by the disease.
opinion | Don Martin: Alarms going off over health-care privatization? Such an out-of-touch waste of hot political air
The chances Trudeau's health-care summit with the premiers will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, 'But it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.'