Presence of French declines in Laval

So say figures disclosed by Statistics Canada, culled from the 2006 national census. These numbers specifically relate to the part of the survey on languages spoken.

The figures that apply to Laval island lead to several significant conclusions concerning the French fact on Ile Jesus.

The numbers reveal, among other things, that the ratio of unilingual-French Laval residents rose to 42.5% in 2006, up from the 39.5% reported in 1996. The current numbers also show the proportion of Lavallois whose mother tongue is neither French nor English has risen from 16.7% (1996) to 24% (2006).

According to Stats Can, only 6.9% of Laval’s residents claim English as their mother tongue.

For Catherine Limperis, director of the Carrefour d’intercultures de Laval, a group promoting the integration of immigrants in Laval, this last statistic is everything but surprising.

“We’ve been aware of this reality for a long time,” she affirms. “What hits hard is the number of Laval residents with mother tongue neither French nor English who are unable to speak either of these two languages.

Mrs. Limperis estimates that year after year her organization is called upon to assist more and more people who come to it for services.

Statistics Canada also reports that the proportion of Lavallois whose mother tongue is other than either of Canada’s two official languages is double that of other parts of Quebec.

Comparative figures show that while 80% of the rest of the province declare French to be their mother tongue, Laval’s ratio is 66%. As to language spoken at home, the figures are slightly higher, with 71% of Lavallois reporting they communicate in French, compared with 81% in Quebec as a whole.

Photo: City

(Photo: Martin Alarie)