History of the Centre francophone de Toronto

A Brief History of Centre francophone de Toronto

Francophones have had a presence in Toronto for hundreds of years. In fact, it was Samuel de Champlain’s interpreter, a Métis by the name of Étienne Brûlé, who discovered the region in 1615.

The roots of Toronto’s Francophone community—la Francophonie—extend deep into the many groups who have come to Toronto for economic reasons. In the late 19th century, French Canadians left Quebec in the thousands in search of a better life here in Ontario. Toronto’s first French-language institution, the parish of Sacré-Coeur, was established in 1887.

Toronto’s French-speaking population really began to grow in the mid-20th century. By the 1970s, French-speaking immigrants were arriving in Toronto from all over the world. The community quickly felt the need to create structures and institutions for the delivery of services in its own language. These needs were many and great.

The first need was for an organization that could represent the community and speak on its behalf. In 1975, the Secretary of State commissioned a study entitled Étude sur l’établissement d’un centre francophone à Harbourfront International. This study identified a need for an organization that would bring Toronto’s Francophones together and provide them with a vehicle for cooperation, consultation, and sharing information.

In 1976, 17 Francophone groups in the Toronto region got together and formed an umbrella organization, Le Conseil des organismes francophones de Toronto métropolitain or COFTM. With the signing of its charter in October 1977, COFTM opened offices at 535 Queen’s Quay West.

By 1981, 50 groups were part of COFTM.

However, Toronto’s French-speaking residents needed more than just political representation: they needed services in their own language.

Very early on, health services were identified as a priority. Access to primary health care in French was of vital importance to Franco-Ontarians and they favoured a community-centred approach. The existence of community health centres as an alternative to medical clinics is not a new phenomenon; indeed, residents of Sault Ste. Marie created a community health centre back in 1963.

The Hastings Report published in 1972 recommended that Canada’s provinces create numerous community health centres. That same year, Quebec’s first local community service centre—or CLSC—was established. Ontario was much slower to respond, gradually establishing a handful of community health centres.

During this time, Toronto’s Francophone community rallied to create an entire range of French-language services.

In 1981, a study recommended the creation of a centre that would offer cultural and information services to welcome newcomers to the community. That year, the Centre culturel et d’information francophone de Toronto was incorporated. One year later, the community developed bilingual policies with the federal government and opened two employment centres. CFT hosted a symposium, organized in partnership with Glendon College, on the future of French-language education.

In 1983, COFTM moved to temporary quarters at 222 Queen’s Quay West. It would be another five years before it moved to its permanent location at 20 Lower Spadina Avenue.

In 1985, COFTM joined Centraide du Toronto Métropolitain or the United Way Toronto.

During the 1980s, Toronto’s Francophone community also created a Francophone medical information and support centre, located in the Centre des Pionniers, to assist those accompanying loved ones being cared for in a Toronto hospital. At the time, health professionals who could offer services in French were few and far between. Francophones did not know what services they offered or how to find them, as they were scattered throughout the city’s hospitals and social service centres.

For five years, the Association canadienne-française de l’Ontario, which represents Francophones at the provincial level, studied the problem of the lack of French-language health services and, in 1985, a regional committee was struck to study the services available to Francophones living in Toronto. With COFTM’s active support, this committee became a working group for the creation of a Francophone health centre.

In 1986, COFTM took part in a study to enable Ontario’s French-language cultural centres to combine their administrative, accounting, and membership services. A year later, a report by Woods Gordon confirmed the need to bring services together in one place and to find COFTM a permanent home.

Plans for a centre that would offer medical and social services in French were progressing. Centre médico-social communautaire de Toronto was officially incorporated in 1988 and officially opened its doors one year later, on October 23, 1989, at 22 College Street. Funded by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Community and Social Services, the Centre has a dozen employees.

The 1990s saw the consolidation of services for Toronto’s Francophone population. The need for these services continued to grow, as Francophones from around the world settled in Toronto. COFTM gradually introduced an entire range of services to meet their needs. In 1992, COFTM offered the first summer camp for French-speaking children. It coordinated the first-ever French-language Christmas hamper project, Paniers de Noël. The following year, COFTM started offering English-as-a-second-language courses as well as services to help French-speaking newcomers settle in. It also published a directory of French-language resources.

Demand for the services of Centre médico-social communautaire (CMSC) continued to grow as well and, in 1993, it opened a satellite centre in the north end of the city (at 5 Fairview Mall Drive). In 1994, COFTM signed a 60-year lease with the City of Toronto for the offices at 20 Lower Spadina Avenue. That same year, the centre changed its name to the Centre francophone de Toronto Métropolitain. A few years later, in 2000, the name was changed to the Centre francophone de Toronto.

Toronto’s Francophone community was dealt a blow on Friday, October 13, 1995, when the provincial government withdrew all funding for the social services offered at CMSC. Funding for counselling services, therapy services, and community development was cut. It would be another five years before some of these services were reinstated.

In the late 1990s, CMSC began an intensive service development effort. In response to needs analyses and the obvious lack of French-language services, CMSC was given a mandate to offer adult mental health services, infant services, and mental health services for children. CMSC received its first accreditation as a centre providing quality services in April 2002.

The years that followed provided a period of reflection for Toronto’s Francophones. They wanted to see all of these services and activities grouped together under one roof. Thus was born the idea of a centre for the Francophone community.

The community had a wider vision: why not merge CMSC and Centre francophone de Toronto into a single organization? In 2002, with a joint committee, talks between the two organizations got underway. The committee conducted a feasibility study on every aspect of the organizations and issued recommendations.

In 2003, CMSC officially began offering legal aid services in French. It also opened its child care centre, Le Coin de la petite enfance. CMSC became the only centre in Ontario to offer all of the social services and health services that Francophones needed, thereby providing a prototype of French-language service delivery.

In December 2003, at separate extraordinary general assemblies, the two organizations approved an agreement in principle. They were officially merged on April 28, 2004. The first board of directors of the newly created Centre francophone de Toronto (CFT) had 14 members—seven from each organization. Jean-Gilles Pelletier became the new centre’s Executive Director.

With this momentum, CFT continued to actively offer services and officially opened a day treatment centre for children between the ages of 6 and 12 in École Ste-Madeleine, in North York.

Its services for newcomers to Canada also continued to expand: intake and group support services were added in 2005; partnering with Canadian professionals was added in 2006; and outreach and volunteer coordination services were added in 2007.