Vitality Indicators for Official Language Minority Communities 2 : Three English-Speaking Communities in Quebec: The English-Speaking Community of the Lower North Shore

A study of vitality indicators for Lower North Shore Anglophone communities. Indicators examined are health and social services, community renewal, youth, and economic development. According to the 2006 census, the population whose first official language spoken is English was 3,500, representing eighty percent of the total population of the Lower North Shore area (consisting of Blanc-Sablon, Bonne-Esperance, Saint-Augustin, Gros-Mécatina and the Côte-Nord-du-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent). Nearly one in five members of the Lower North Shore English-speaking community was below the age of 15 in 2006, while thirteen percent was over the age of 65. The predominant concern expressed on the Lower North Shore during this study was the question of renewal: how to enhance the vitality of the English-speaking communities so that youth see a future in working and living in the place they grew up. Although service was an important element in the health and social services vitality model, access and availability as well as basic infrastructure such as transportation and communications, were common concerns throughout the four sectors chosen by the Lower North Shore communities. And while economic development is important to all communities, the English-speaking communities of the Lower North Shore have come very close to losing some of their communities simply because there are no jobs to be had at all.

Ottawa, ON

Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

2008

x-21p.

en

978-0-662-05787-1