Article content

English-speaking Quebecers have long since come to realize that ours is a minority community in a predominantly French-speaking province.

But persuading our fellow Quebecers that this community has rights and vulnerabilities has been an ongoing challenge. So has getting proper attention from the federal government, which, not without reason, has tended to focus its official-language efforts on boosting French.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Editorial: At last, Quebec anglophones are on the radar Back to video

Fact is, the anglo minority needs and deserves some support too.

And this week, both the provincial and federal governments took welcome steps to provide it.

On Tuesday, the Quebec budget allocated badly needed additional funding for Quebec’s new secretariat for English-speaking Quebecers. Its job is to ensure that the community’s rights and interests receive consideration at the highest levels. Even under this friendly Liberal government, there have been at least two instances (the ill-conceived Bill 10 on hospital administration and the ill-fated Bill 86 on school governance) of broader initiatives causing, or threatening to cause, collateral damage to the community. Now, with a commitment of $24.5 million spread over six years, it appears that the bare-bones secretariat is to be fleshed out, and that community groups are going to get resources to enable them to provide input.