11 N.B. groups lend support for bilingual sign bylaw in Dieppe
Eleven New Brunswick francophone organizations have joined together to pressure Dieppe councillors to proceed with a new bilingual sign bylaw.
The lack of bilingual signs in the city brought the groups together on Thursday to lend their support to a petition asking that all commercial signs in Dieppe be in both official languages.
One international student studying at the Université de Moncton spoke at the groups' news conference, saying the lack of bilingual signs is causing her to rethink her decision to stay in the area.
Aline Essombe, who is from Cameroon, said many foreign students were enticed to the Moncton area, which includes Dieppe, because recruiters portrayed it as a bilingual community.
However, she said the reality has often not lived up to what was promised and one symbol of that is the lack of signs in both languages in the southeastern city.
"So I was wondering if I was just limited into Moncton University or the CCNB Dieppe when I wanted to speak French, or if I wanted to go to Quebec or quit the province because I wanted to have the bilingual service," Essombe said.
Essombe said she's considering staying in Canada after her studies, however said it is important to her to feel welcome.
Bylaw petition has 4,000 signatures Roughly 4,000 people in the area have signed a petition asking for a bylaw to force businesses to put up signs in French and English in Dieppe.
Martin Leblanc-Rioux, who started the petition, said it is vital that Dieppe, the biggest Acadian city in the world, has signs in English and French.
"If we can't convince the largest francophone city in New Brunswick to adopt a bylaw … I don't think it's worth going to the province," Leblanc-Rioux said.
Michel Belliveau, vice-president of the Fédération d'alphabétisation du Nouveau-Brunswick, a literacy organization, said he finds it frustrating that 80 per cent of Dieppe residents are francophones but only about 50 per cent of the signs in the city are bilingual.
Dieppe Mayor Jean LeBlanc said he understands the concerns but when the petition first came in front of council, councillors said they were in no rush to adopt a sign bylaw. LeBlanc said they want to study how similar bylaws were received in other towns.
"We receive [complaints such as Essombe's] respectfully, we're treating them and we will make decisions accordingly," LeBlanc said.