February 2021 Federal Pre-Budget Consultation

For more than 40 years Townshippers’ Association has been at the forefront of community engagement, pursuing its mission to promote the interests of the English-speaking community in Quebec’s historical Eastern Townships, strengthen its cultural identity, and encourage the full participation of the English-speaking population in the community at large. We work on behalf of more than 40, 000 English-speakers who are spread across a region that is geographically larger than Belgium; stretching from Philipsburg in the west to Megantic in the east, and from Inverness in the north to the U.S. border in the south. This brief will provide essential information regarding factors affecting Official Language Minority Community vitality; recent statistics describing the situation of English-speakers in the Historical Eastern Townships (HET), including preliminary data showing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; and conclude with recommendations for consideration in the development of a new federal budget.