MONTREAL – Marvin Rotrand is on a mission to increase the number of anglophones in Montreal’s civil service.
The city councillor for Snowdon believes anglophones are under-represented in the city’s workforce and wants to find out if English-speaking Quebecers are being systematically excluded from employment.
In a letter to the city’s Director General Robert Lamontagne, obtained by Global News, Rotrand is asking politicians and administrators to tackle the issue.
“While anglophones represent an important part of Montreal’s population, there seem to be very few working in the civil service, at all levels,” he stated.
The city of Montreal employs more than 20,000 people, including both blue- and white-collar workers. As it stands, there are no statistics on the number of English-speaking employees since anglophones aren’t considered a minority, as is the case in Quebec’s civil service. Rotrand says he’s received numerous emails from anglophones complaining they can’t get a job with the city.
“Everybody’s telling me this, there aren’t any anglophones, we have to do something about it, let’s find out what the problem is,” said Rotrand.
Rotrand hopes his latest letter to the city will help find answers.
“I want a portrait how many anglophones actually work for the city of Montreal, my information is anecdotal but most of the councillors agree with me there don’t seem to be very many,” insisted the city councillor.
Montreal’s Mayor Michael Applebaum isn’t convinced anglophones are being excluded.
“You have to realize that in order to work in the city of Montreal you have to be able to work in the French language,” said the Mayor who insisted the city has made efforts to reflect Montreal’s diversity.
“When it comes to the civil service we have to have workers that represent all different nationalities, different cultural communities and of course speaks many languages.”
Rotrand had high hopes that an anglophone mayor would want to tackle the issue, but so far he’s received little support from his colleagues.
“Nobody at city hall wants to touch this issue,” said Rotrand.
Comments