Northern N.B. town declares French as sole official language after review
Belle-Baie says it plans to also communicate health and safety information in English
Belle-Baie, a newly formed town, launched a review into its language policy after concerns were raised over public notices published only in French.
The majority-francophone community was created on Jan. 1, when Beresford, Petit-Rocher, Nigadoo and Pointe-Verte were merged as part of local governance reform.
On Thursday, the town released a draft of its language policy to the public. It declares French as the official language of Belle-Baie, but notes it will make exceptions for public notices for health and safety issues.
Mayor Daniel Guitard said any resident will still be able to request all services in English.
"We
wanted to have the best possible policy showing that we're a French
community. But we wanted to be reasonable with our anglophone friends,"
he said.
"We're not a bilingual community, we're a French community. But we will provide services to citizens in English if they require it to be in English, in certain circumstances.
- Mayor Daniel Guitard
The draft policy states that all oral and written communications from the municipality, including public notices, information documents, social media posts and the town's website will be solely in French. It also says the working language of government will be French. Public notices will be bilingual when it concerns health or public safety.
Belle-Baie's residents are 92 per cent francophone, so the town has no obligation to provide bilingual services.
Under New Brunswick's Official Languages Act, only a municipality whose official language minority population reaches at least 20 per cent is required to offer services in both English and French. Cities are also required to provide bilingual services.
'Very unwelcoming'
Before the creation of Belle-Baie, the former Town of Beresford published public notices in both official languages as a courtesy to English-speaking residents. In the 2021 census, 17.5 per cent of Beresford residents reported English as their first language, putting it just short of the 20 per cent threshold. Out of the 650 anglophones, 305 reported knowledge of English only.
Ashley Aube, an anglophone resident of Beresford for 15 years, said people first started raising concerns about French-only notices after a boil-water advisory was posted only in French. She said the warning was for an area adjacent to a daycare for anglophone children.
"It was always in French and English, even the town sign was in French and English," she said of services before the merger. "I don't know why when we became Belle-Baie that all of a sudden it had to become a French community."
Ashley Aube says she's concerned anglophone residents of Belle-Baie could miss important notices from the municipality. (Zoom/CBC)
Aube, who grew up in Ontario, said she speaks basic French but does not consider herself to be fully bilingual. She's concerned unilingual anglophones will be left out of cultural, recreational and community activities.
"Just assuming that they would understand French, to me, is very unwelcoming," she said.
In February, New Brunswick's Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages confirmed it had received complaints about the language policy in Belle-Baie.
Aube said she understands the desire to protect the French language, but said excluding an entire group of citizens from public notices is not the right approach.
Policy promotes French, mayor says
Guitard said Belle-Baie's transition committee, which was created to work on the amalgamation, decided the new municipality would operate in French given its linguistic composition.
He said after launching a review of the policy, a committee of councillors consulted with experts, politicians and the province's Commissioner of Official Languages.
The municipality is currently serving residents in both official languages at its office and is personally communicating with individual residents in English when requested. Public notices and Facebook posts have only been made in French.
Guitard said anglophone residents will also be able to make presentations before council or ask questions in English. He said places like Belle-Baie are important for the francophone and Acadian linguistic minority community in New Brunswick.
He said his town accepts anglophones with "open arms" and will strive to offer quality services in English when requested. He said the "vast majority" of citizens he consulted with told him it was important to protect the French nature of the community.
"We had to come up with rules to make sure we serve our population, but we promote the French side of our community," he said.
"We're not a bilingual community, we're a French community. But we will provide services to citizens in English if they require it to be in English, in certain circumstances."
Belle-Baie will hear feedback on the draft policy at a public meeting on Tuesday.
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What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander
If I were a small business in Belle-Baie trying to make ends meet and survive in today's world I would be very very upset with my " newly formed town "
Now just imagine if a town or city in NB with a large percentage of english voted to go English as the solo language.The Acadian Society of NB would be all over this as unfair, unjust, against my rights ,,,,on and on it goes..
The optics look terrible here so take a step back admit the mistake and chalk it up to being a " newly formed town " and welcome the english speaking people to your beautiful area instead of fueling the divide and keeping english out of your area..
Provincial and Federal services yes, municipal, no.
Of there, their, and they're, the correct word would be their, there.
Those communities send out french notices now, do they??
No good reason for cors to make up a french screen name.
I, as a resident of Ottawa, am a second class citizen because I wasn't born French and never really learned it being from that great French bastian of Winterpeg. You can blather in broken English, fine, but if you as an Anglo try and speak French, you better be able to pass a Parisian exam. Great people, by the way !
Russell Pastuch
Manager, Electronics Systems Research at Correctional Service of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Next step, a census of all towns/cities west of Quebec. More than 50% Anglo, make English the official language and reduce French services.
And I HAVE to be bilingual. The tail wags the dog.
before that no french was taught?
lmao
"what if i told you....."
Anglophone communities all over NB offer services only in English as that is all they are required to offer when the minority speaking French accounts for 20% or less of the population in that community.
as far as census goes I only speak English
Ca put se jouer a deux
The amalgamation has done little to improve things and the infighting and taxes will only increase as a result. This is a prim example, IMO
Rules for thee but not for me?
Notice how no Francophones have issues with Sussex offering their communications and services only in English?
Hon. Daniel Guitard
Served : 2018-2020
Daniel Guitard was re-elected to the Legislative Assembly on September 14, 2020, in his riding of Restigouche-Chaleur. He serves as the Opposition Critic for Transportation and Infrastructure.
He was first elected in September 2014. He was Deputy Government Whip, and in June 2016, he was appointed Chair of the Government Caucus and a member of the Jobs Board. He served as Vice-Chair of the Standing Committees on Economic Policy and Private Bills and served as a member of the Legislative Administration Committee and the Standing Committees on Procedure, Privileges and Legislative Officers and Public Accounts.
Following the September 2018 provincial election, he was elected Speaker of the 59th Legislative Assembly and served as Chair of the Legislative Administration Committee.
Mr. Guitard’s political career began in the eighties, when he became a Pointe-Verte municipal councillor. In October 2006, he became executive assistant to Roland Haché, Minister of the Environment and later Minister of Education. Mr. Guitard was elected Mayor of Pointe-Verte in the May 2012 municipal election. In January 2013, he became the first chair of the new Chaleur Regional Service Commission.
Daniel Guitard, son of Roland and Mona Guitard (née Frenette), of Pointe-Verte, was born on October 1, 1959. He attended École Séjour-Jeunesse, in Pointe-Verte, and École secondaire Nepisiguit, in Bathurst. In 1979, he received a diploma in business administration from the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick, in Bathurst. In 2012, he completed his training as a financial planner with the Canadian Securities Institute.
He has extensive professional experience. He started out as a credit officer with the Canadian Acceptance Corporation. In January 1981, he began a career spanning nearly 16 years with the federal Department of Employment and Immigration. He rose through the ranks, going from claims clerk to unit head, before becoming a program officer and, finally, a community economic development adviser. In 1995, he went into business by acquiring a business specializing in the sale and servicing of recreational products. His business grew at a terrific rate. On five occasions, he won the silver award for dealers with the best customer ratings for after-sales service. In April 2011, he became a financial planner with the National Bank and an agent with the Knights of Columbus.
Mr. Guitard has been very active in his community as the chair of various festivals, a minor hockey and baseball team manager, a municipal councillor, and the chair of Atlas Park. He sat on the Belledune District Planning Commission and the BNPP Regional Police joint committee. For several years, he was an adviser to the franchise advisory committee of the Quebec franchiser Joe Rent All. He remains an active member of the Knights of Columbus council in his village.
Mr. Guitard is married to Diane Lagacé. They have three children: Yves, 30, who is married to Lucie Guitard, Andrée, 27, who is married to Charles Aubé, and Luc, 25. They also have two grandsons, Anthony and Jacob, and three granddaughters, Ariane, Chrystel and Lyanna.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/mlas-resign-legislature-1.6612805
Liberal MLA Daniel Guitard confirms resignation, plans mayoral run
N.B. Liberal Leader Susan Holt has 2 vacancies to choose from in byelection bid for seat
Restigouche-Chaleur Liberal MLA Daniel Guitard, a former speaker of the legislature, confirmed Tuesday he will resign to run for mayor of the new municipal entity of Belle-Baie.
And he said he'll take his leave win or lose, which creates another potential opening for new Liberal Leader Susan Holt to win a byelection to get into the legislature.
Guitard says while his seat is strongly Liberal, this is not a case of him handing it over to Holt.
"Some people say I'm offering my seat. That's not the way it is. I'm retiring. … It'll be up to the local association and the provincial association with Ms. Holt to make this decision."
Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore MLA Denis Landry also plans to leave to run for mayor of Hautes-Terres in November. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)
Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore MLA Denis Landry also plans to leave to run for mayor of Hautes-Terres in November.
Holt said Tuesday she will announce this week in which of the two ridings she will run for election.
The exact timing of the two potential byelections remains unclear.
Guitard will leave whether he's elected mayor or not, but if he wins he may remain an MLA until his swearing-in, and it's not clear whether that will happen until the new year.
Guitard was the mayor of Pointe-Verte, a village near Belledune, before running provincially.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt said Tuesday she will announce this week
which of the two ridings she would like to run in. (Jacques
Poitras/CBC) Gallant lost his majority in the election and the PCs won one more seat than the Liberals. Neither party had a majority and both initially refused to nominate a speaker because it would cost them one vote in the closely-divided legislature.
The Liberals finally blinked and put Guitard's name forward.
"I made myself a lot of friends on both sides of the house," he said Tuesday. "My two years as speaker made me realize we were opponents, not enemies.…
"Everyone of them on the other side, I do respect for what they're trying to do for the province. I don't agree with what they're doing, but I respect them for pushing forward what they believe in."
Premier Blaine Higgs said last week he sees no reason to delay calling the byelections, but said the timing will depend on when the seats become officially vacant.
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Denis Landry
Denis Landry was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick on September 11, 1995, as member for Centre-Péninsule. He served on the Standing Committee on Law Amendments, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and the Special Cabinet Committee on Social Policy Renewal. He was a member of the Action Nord group and served on the ministerial committee for the economic development of the Acadian Peninsula.
Reelected in 2003, he served on the Standing Committee on Private Bills and the Select Committee on Wood Supply. As a member of the official opposition, he was Tourism Critic and Automobile Insurance Critic.
Mr. Landry was elected again in 2006, as member for the new riding of Centre-Péninsule—Saint-Sauveur, and he was Minister of Transportation until 2010.
Elected for a fourth term in 2010, he was Official Opposition Whip and served on the Standing Committee on Estimates and the Legislative Administration Committee. He was also Natural Resources, Environment, and Communications New Brunswick Critic for the official opposition.
He was re-elected in 2014 to represent the new riding of Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore. He was Minister of Natural Resources and Minister of Human Resources until 2016, and then Minister of Justice and Public Safety. He also served on the Jobs Board and the Policy Board until 2018.
Elected for a sixth term on September 24, 2018, he was appointed Minister of Justice and Public Safety, as well as Acting Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, and he held these positions until November 2, 2018. He then became Transportation and Infrastructure Critic for the official opposition.
On February 12, 2019, Mr. Landry was elected Acting Leader of the Official Opposition and Acting Liberal Party Leader by the members of the Liberal caucus.
Re-elected for a seventh mandate on September 14, 2020, he serves as the Fisheries and Aquaculture Critic and the Justice Critic. Mr. Landry is the Official Opposition Whip.
Before going into politics, Mr. Landry worked as a logger for 17 years. Active in the labour movement, he served as Secretary-Treasurer and then President of Local 123 of the Canadian Paperworkers Union. He also served as president of the coalition against changes in unemployment insurance, president of the Acadian Peninsula labour council, and provincial coordinator for the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, which he attended as a consultant.
Mr. Landry graduated from Polyvalente Louis-Mailloux in Caraquet, in 1975, and he took various training courses, including a forestry instructor course at the Memramcook Institute, leadership training at St. Francis Xavier University, a literacy instruction course in Fredericton, and training in small business creation at the Université de Moncton, Shippagan campus.
Born in Val-Doucet, Mr. Landry is the eldest of 11 children. He and his wife, Johanne, have three children, Sébastien (Yelena Landry), Natacha (Michel Godin), and Cédric (Joannie Landry), as well as seven grandchildren, Kassime, Karellie, Kaissa, Kayana, Benjamin, Maxime, and Alexandra.
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