French is the fifth or sixth most spoken language in provinces west of Quebec, trailing behind Mandarin and Tagalog in major English-speaking cities, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“We know French is on the decline across Canada,” Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor told the Senate. .“In 1971, the francophone population outside Quebec was 6.6%.”.Records show Ontario numbers 2.7 million English speakers, 649,560 Chinese, and 594,735 French. They said the Toronto area had about four million residents identify English as the language spoken most often at home. .Other popular languages in Toronto were Mandarin (204,415), Cantonese (177,950), Punjabi (161,965), and Urdu (89,120). French came in 19th place (27,420). .Records said Manitoba has 1.2 million English speakers. They added other popular languages spoken most at home were Tagalog (65,910), German (43,535), and Punjabi (39,810). .The most popular languages in Winnipeg were English (649,470), Tagalog (29,690), Punjabi (27,700), and French (9,940)..Saskatchewan census figures showed the most common spoken languages were English with 1.1 million speakers, followed by Tagalog (31,050), Cree (16,775), German (15,295), and Chinese (13,820). .Regina figures showed there were 208,980 English speakers, followed by Tagalog (4,020), Punjabi (3,315), Mandarin (2,580), and Gujarati (1,985). French was in ninth place (985). .The most popular languages in Alberta were English (3.9 million), Tagalog (147,235), Chinese (119,540), and Punjabi (113,195). Edmonton census figures identified 1.1 million English speakers, followed by Tagalog (26,000), Mandarin (14,730), Cantonese (14,215), and Arabic (12,675). .English speakers in British Columbia numbered 4.4 million people, followed by Chinese (430,010), Punjabi (279,655), Tagalog (109,715), and Hindi (76,970). Hindi was a little ahead of French (76,375)..Vancouver saw 1.7 million people identify English as the language spoken most often at home, followed by Mandarin (152,805), Punjabi (136,300), Cantonese (131,660), and Korean (40,050). French took 13th place (8,690)..Former official languages minister Melanie Joly said in 2021 the internet has overwhelmed French in a “ocean” of English. .READ MORE: Liberals vow to protect the French language.Joly said that's why the Canadian government will bring in first-of-its-kind legislation to require federally-regulated private employers to promote French..“This is a major shift in official languages policy,” she said.
