People in the Halifax region will soon get municipal notices in both official languages.
After adding new welcome signs that include French and Mi'kmaq, the Halifax Regional Municipality is increasing its French language services. This is a first for the city.
“We need to represent the francophone community,” says Halifax councillor Tony Mancini.
According to Stats Canada's latest census data, 49,575 of the nearly 400,000 residents of HRM speak both official languages. Just shy of 10,000 people say French is their mother tongue. Of those, 340 only speak French – less than one per cent of the population.
Though those numbers are small, the cost of translation isn't. The translation services are being contracted to an outside agency that charges per word, with $100,000 set aside for each of the next two years.
The municipality has hired a fulltime media relations officer who will deal with French media requests.
“It would be very easy to say no because it's going to cost us a few hundred thousand dollars. It's the position, it's the ability for us to use translation services, whether it's for our newsletters as councilors,” says Mancini.
Though the price tag is high, it is coming as welcome news in West Chezzetcook, one of the area's oldest Acadian settlements.
Beverly Hugli is one of the people who spearheaded the creation of the Acadian House Museum: L'Acadie de Chezzetcook. She says French is on the rebound, with six French schools in the HRM.
“I'm sure some of them may have some difficulty with English, especially if they're newcomers,” Hugli says.
Not all newcomers speak English or French, and councillor Mancini calls this a first step.
“I would personally love that opportunity to be translated in Arabic, and the opportunity to be translated in Mi’kmaq also,” he says.
For now, Haligonians can look for PSAs en Francais at the end of this month.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie.
