New Brunswick bilingualism rate rises to 34%

New Brunswick saw one of the biggest jumps in English-French bilingualismrates across the country, giving it the second highest bilingualismrate after Quebec,according to the latest census data from Statistics Canada.

For some of them, and I would say a lot of them, it's just a phase to be English-speaking only.-FrdrickDion, AFMNB

It's unclear from the data whether more anglophones are learning French, or more francophones are learning English.

But the figures are raising concerns among some francophoneorganizations.

"Canada is becoming more bilingual but less francophone,"Frdrick Dion, executive director ofl'Association francophone des municipalits du Nouveau-Brunswick, said in apost in French on Twitter.

The increase in bilingualismin New Brunswick might be due to gradual assimilation of francophones, suggested Dion, whose group consists of 53francophoneand bilingual municipalities, representing nearly300,000 people more than a third of the province's population.

"We need to look more in detail at what [the numbers]mean," Dion told CBC News. "We understand that there's more French people that identify themselves as a bilingual person and they don't feel like they are French, or their main identity is French.

"But for some of them, and I would say a lot of them, it's just a phase to be English-speaking only.So in one or two generations, they will not be bilingual and they will be completely assimilated.That's a reality and we see it in New Brunswick."

National bilingualismhits historic high

Last year,250,460 New Brunswickers, or 34 per cent of the population, said they speak both English and French. That's up 0.8 per cent from 2011, when 33.2 per cent identified themselves as bilingual.

Only Quebec and the Northwest Territories had larger increases in bilingualismrates since the last census five years ago,the data released on Wednesday shows.

In Quebec, 44.9 per cent of the population is bilingual, 2.3 per cent more than in 2011. In the Northwest Territories, thebilingualismrate last year was 10.3 per cent, representing a 1.2 per cent increase.

Across Canada, the English-Frenchbilingualismrate was 18 per cent the highest proportion ever, Statistics Canada found. The previous high was 17.7 per cent in 2011.

Between 2006 and 2011, the bilingualism rate had declined in every province except Quebec, the data shows.

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Katherined'Entremont, New Brunswick's commissioner of official languages, declined to comment on the latest figures.

"The 2016 censusdata on language are very important to assess the vitality of our two official languages," office spokesmanHuguesBeaulieusaid in anemail.

"The office of the commissioner will carefully analyze the data prior to commenting publicly."

Dionwants to ensure the French language is protected. He believes addressing economic challenges in rural parts of the province where francophonesare concentrated could help.

As it stands, many francophones are leaving the province to find jobs, he said.

Dion also proposes increasing the number of French immigrants to counteractthe decreasing proportion of francophonesin New Brunswick.

"We need to put in place good policies and more effort," he said.

Changes in 'mother tongues'

English is still the dominant mother tongue in New Brunswick, according to the census, with473,825 people identifying it as the first language learned at home in childhood and stillunderstood. That'sdown from 479,930 in 2011.

There was also a drop in the number of New Brunswickers who said French is their mother tongue 230,005 (31 per cent of the population) in 2016, compared with 233,530 during the previous census.

The census revealed a similar decline in the number of people across Canada who report French as theirmother tongue 21.3 per centin2016compared with22.0 per cent in2011,and as a language spoken at home (23.3per cent in2016versus23.8 per centin2011).

Meanwhile, more than 23,000 NewBrunswickersreportedneither official language as beingtheir mother tongue, likely due to more immigration, said Statistics Canada.

Arabic is now the third-largest reported mother tongue in the province, accounting for 2,855 people, followed by Mandarin 2,255, and Indigenous languages, 2,160.

Nearly 23 per cent of Canadians reported having an "other" mother tongue in 2016, up from 21.3 per cent in 2011.