RM of Ste. Anne now officially a bilingual municipality

The Rural Municipality of Ste. Anne is excited to announce they are officially a bilingual community!  

Late Wednesday morning, Council gave third reading to a by-law designating the municipality as Official Bilingual and made their membership with the Association of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities official.  

After passing the by-law, there was a short flag-raising ceremony to commemorate the occasion. The Franco-Manitoban Flag was raised and is here to stay in the municipality's council chambers. 

The flag is used by the Franco-Manitoban community and is a symbol of their pride and vitality as French-speaking Manitobans. 

Richard Pelletier, Reeve for the RM of Ste. Anne says he is very excited the municipality is officially bilingual.  

“There's so many French people in the municipality of Ste. Anne, and now to have the support and the big group of Manitoba to work together with so many people—really, it's a bilingual province, and knowing how many French people there are in Manitoba, and be part of that, it's exciting.”  

As Pelletier is part of the French community in Ste. Anne himself, the new Official Bilingual designation makes him feel recognized. 

“I got a big family, five kids, nine grandkids, most of them French. It makes me feel good to be in Manitoba, even though I'm from the East.”  

He says he came to Manitoba thinking he was coming to an English province, but he was happily surprised to meet so many French people.  

Pelletier says being bilingual is something he considers an asset, and it’s an amazing feeling to finally be officially recognized as a bilingual municipality.  

“Being bilingual—it's almost like having the talent to play music. It's a talent, something that's nice,” he says. “There's so many French people, that we recognize that, I mean, this is big. I'm not sure how I'm not jumping, but I should!”