French Cultural Hub (French: Union de la Culture Française, UCF; Traditional Chinese: 法語文化圈) is a political-cultural union composed of 10 member municipalities within the Regional Municipality of Gravenhurst. It is not an official geographic entity or administrative division, but rather a cooperative pact between the French speaking municipalities in the region. The union aims to promote the usage of French and the French culture within its respective municipalities. Membership is opened to all interested municipalities within Gravenhurst, regardless of the proportion of French speakers in the municipality.
The de jure seat of the union is Archemedes, since it is the regional capital. However, the de facto seat is in Caithness - Caledonia, where the union's head office is located.
The creation of French Cultural Hub was established on 1 September 2012. Since then, the Hub has been proven quite successful. Other autonomous countries have implemented similar unions modelling after the hub.
The UCF (or the Hub) is a subsidiary of a larger, kingdom-wide union / cooperative pact, namely La Francophonie des pays imaginaires de Nicholas.
Background
The historical French colony of La Pacifique Concorde, which occupies part of what is now Gravenhurst Region, has brought the French language and culture to the region. Despite its collapse in the late 17th century, much of the French language practice has been retained in much of the region.
In the recent decades, there has been a noticeable decline in the French language usage across the region due to an influx of non-French speaking immigrants, and the prevalence of Cantonese and English due to their kingdom-wide co-official languages statuses. In the late 2000s, there has been discussions among some Gravenhursters to eliminate French from the region's list of official languages.
To turn this around, a French-speaking member of the Gravenhurst Parliament has motioned to form a French speaking union in 2011, in order to better protect the status and usage of French within the region. The parliament has voted 72% in favour of creation of such union. The union was thus created on 1 September 2012.
Policies
The following is a list of policies introduced in member municipalities thus far:
- Improve the French-language education network. Increase the number of French elementary and secondary education institutions by at least 50% of the current amount available in the member municipalities, or up to the amount where allowed by law. The Kingdom's language policy has ensured the promotion of Cantonese and English, which cannot be violated.
- Encourage businesses to promote their products in French, or use French in workplaces. Businesses are then eligible for a grant or a tax-reduction in the member municipalities.
- Encourage French-speaking immigrants.
Member municipalities
- City of Archemedes
- Township of Arithmetic
- Ville de Borden
- Town of Caithness - Caledonia
- Township of Charlesbourg
- Township of Louisbourg
- Town of Medicine Hat
- City of Sussex
- Town of Texas
- Town of Valleydale
See also
- Secteur français de Watersauga