Well, Emploi Québec offers language training to both locals and immigrants who need to increase their English or French-speaking skills for job purposes. Quebec pays for everything as longs as the participant goes to class and shows steady improvement. I know this because I'm a teacher in one of the schools to which Emploi Quebec funnels people. So, there is an effort on the provincial level to get people (not just immigrants) to increase their language skills.
Of course, there has to be initial interest on the part of the individual. If an immigrant is simply not interested in pursuing language courses, and just completes whatever bare minimum is necessary to enter the country (or has contacts here to bypass the process entirely), then there's nothing that can be done.
Personally, I can't imagine why a newly arrived immigrant wouldn't do anything in his/her power to learn at least one of Canada's official languages. When I lived in Japan, I felt ashamed and useless when I couldn't communicate effectively in Japanese, so I busted my ass to get my level up. Because of this, I share feelgood's view on the current topic, but the realist in me knows that tracking down people and testing their knowledge would be costly and time-consuming. Therefore, we'll all have to deal with the occasional snag.
__________________
A plan is just a list of things that don't happen.
|