PERT travelled across Québec to explore the employment conditions of the province’s English speakers.

Over the last few months, members of the PERT team took a break from being hunched over economic spreadsheets and statistics and we hit the road. 

Our aim? To put a human face to the economic challenges buffeting Québec’s English-speaking communities and to identify policy gaps and find solutions to bolster their employment prospects across the province. 

We came armed, however, with a trove of employment data gleaned from economic profiles of the regions that are the culmination of months of research and work. The project was one of our most ambitious ever: Creating employment snapshots of English speakers across the province, from the region surrounding Québec City all the way to the sprawling Côte-Nord. 

The road trip – both by car and via Zoom – helped us to gain a clearer and more visceral sense of the economic situation of English speakers in a diverse province, where urban economies like Montréal and Québec City co-exist with more remote regions like the Côte-Nord. In that northern region, nearly 1,000 kilometres from our desks in Montréal,  white-tailed deer and aquatic birds dot the landscape in an area where natural resources like aluminum, minerals and fish fisheries have shaped the economy for decades. 

In each region we profiled, we organized conferences with our local partners, stakeholders and residents. Here’s an overview of the regions covered to date:

Magdalen Islands

The tour kicked off on June 4, 2024, with a webinar we gave in partnership with the Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders. The Magdalen Islands, or Îles-de-la-Madeleine, make up a picturesque archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence consisting of seven inhabited islands. In 1534, the explorer Jacques Cartier was the first known European to explore the islands, where some of Québec’s oldest English-speaking settlements first emerged. Prior to the Europeans’ arrival, Indigenous people inhabited the area and fished and hunted for seal. These days, the islands are famous for strawberry-picking and seafood.

During the webinar, we discussed how our report for the region showed that English-speaking youth are drawn to the seasonal fishing industry, where wages are high. Engaging in seasonal work is especially attractive in a place where diverse job opportunities and educational offerings, especially English-language CEGEPS or universities, are largely absent. But there is a notable downside:  Reliance on seasonal work leads to dependence on employment insurance during the off-season, which can contribute to high unemployment rates. 

PERT identified a potential solution: To prioritize programs that assist seasonal workers in finding off-season employment, as well as to help expand opportunities in the wider job market. This, in turn, could enhance incomes and strengthen the economy.

Chaudière-Appalaches

The next day, we joined the  Megantic Community Development Corporation for a webinar focused on the Chaudière-Appalaches region, which has a population of roughly 430,000 and encompasses the Beauce, a proud area known for its agricultural and manufacturing industries.

Located some 300 kilometres northeast of Montréal, the Chaudière-Appalaches region is also a statistical outlier; it is one of only two in the province where English speakers earn a higher median income than French speakers. Nevertheless, the employment situation among English speakers is far from ideal. There are sharp disparities within the community, with many earning below $20,000 and a minority earning above $70,000.

Participants noted that newcomers struggled to find work, even if they speak French, because they lacked confidence with the language. At the same time, French-speaking employers are reluctant to hire English speakers, who complain of linguistic bias and an unwillingness to recognize professional credentials from outside of Québec. We discussed the importance of programs that raise employer awareness of the impressive skill level of the English-speaking workforce in the region.

Côte-Nord

The Côte-Nord region faces similar challenges as Chaudière-Appalaches, but the employment data presents a different picture. Our profile found that English speakers in the region had an unemployment rate of nearly 18% – the  second-highest unemployment rate in the province and nearly triple that of French speakers. There is also a significant median income gap, with English speakers earning $11,200 less than their French counterparts. 

During the webinar, PERT discussed the employment challenges ahead and possible areas for future research with the North Shore Community Association and the Coasters Association, two organizations serving English speakers in the region. One area of particular interest is the education level among residents in the Côte-Nord and how we can improve it. 

Montérégie

Our first in-person event was held in Montérégie, a southwestern region that is an important manufacturing center and whose gastronomic swagger has earned it the moniker, the “Garden of Québec.” The region, which includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, and  Longueuil, has the second-largest English-speaking population in Québec after Montréal, according to our profile. There we joined forces with the Assistance and Referral Centre, Montérégie West Community Network, and Montérégie-Est Partnership for the English-Speaking Community. In line with trends elsewhere in Québec, the data we compiled shows that English speakers are lagging behind French speakers in key economic areas such as employment and income. The event’s participants suggested employers could help improve the integration of English speakers into the region’s predominantly Francophone workforce by, among other things, providing better French-language learning opportunities training. Our event made a big splash in the local media, generating two articles and a segment on the local television news.  

Laurentides

Shortly after an early morning interview for CBC’s Daybreak, PERT’s team arrived in the Laurentides for an event with 4Korners, an organization that, among other things, helps improve access to health and social services for English speakers living in the Laurentians. 

Our team presented our profile of the region. Despite the need for English speakers in the area’s tourism industry and the high level of bilingualism among the community, many English speakers are struggling. The group’s unemployment rate is 10.5% compared to 6.8% for their French counterparts. At the same time, English speakers have a median employment income of $31,000 – $5,000 less than their Francophone counterparts. The disparity is driven, in part, by lower French proficiency. During the event, community members voiced their concerns and we discussed potential solutions, including how to bolster on-the-job training programs. 

Gaspésie

Our longest trip was to our event in the Gaspésie, a nearly 9-hour car journey from Montréal. The region, known for its stunning landscape and for its iconic Percé Rock, a massive formation of rocks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, has long attracted tourists, drawn by its natural beauty and maritime sensibility.  In Port-Daniel Gascons,  our team met with the Committee for Anglophone Social Action and Vision Gaspé Percé Now! Like Îles-de-la-Madeleine, our employment profile shows that Gaspésie is an outlier, with a high rate of English speakers engaging in part-time work in the fishing and tourism industries. Meeting community members allowed us to discuss potential solutions, such as expanding distance learning opportunities for English speakers.

Capitale-Nationale

In the Capitale-Nationale region, which includes Québec City and the surrounding area, our event revealed striking inequalities. In this area, English speakers earn a lower median employment income and experience higher unemployment than French speakers, despite their high levels of education and bilingualism. The event was organized with the Voice of English Speaking Québec, another group championing the rights of English speakers.

Participants said that too many English speakers were underemployed in jobs for which they were overqualified. Part of the reason, they said, is that local employers didn’t understand or give credence to credentials and training from outside of Québec. We proposed creating programs to help those companies and individuals making hiring decisions to understand out-of-province professional qualifications.

Saguenay

English speakers in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region have higher rates of unemployment compared to their French-speaking counterparts, despite having high levels of bilingualism, strong educational backgrounds, and a robust participation rate in the labour force.

These findings underlined that the community is not receiving adequate on-the-job training and French language education.

Despite Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean being one of only two areas in Québec where English speakers make more in median income than their French counterparts,  newcomers struggle to settle and integrate into the region, where the number of English speakers is relatively small.

To address the employment challenges facing the community, PERT and its partners at ECO-02, an organization advocating for English speakers in the region, stressed the importance of targeted, industry-specific on-the-job language programs. These programs would help improve workplace communication in French and support career development. The groups also called for greater financial support for adult education centers and to expand French-language training tailored to high-demand sectors such as health care and social welfare.

Next steps

The road trip offered an extraordinary opportunity to visit regions across the province, both virtually and in person. This journey allowed us to directly connect with our local partners and stakeholders and to get a sense of the reality on the ground in a way that goes beyond mere data sets. 

These eight events represented months of work by the PERT team to create up-to-date regional profiles, and we are just getting started. 

To read the profiles that have already been released, go to pertquebec.ca/our-reports. To make sure you never miss an event, sign up for our newsletter here.