Mayor Bill Given is hoping to see Grande Prairie inducted into the new Francophone North American Network.
The Mayor of Quebec City is starting up the network, and is hoping to have a first membership meeting later this fall.
Given says there are a lot of potential benefits in joining the network.
“It’ll give us an opportunity to connect and expose our community and region to a market that obviously is very valuable and could be an important source of tourism as well as recruitment for people to move to Grande Prairie.”
Current members of the Network include Quebec city, Moncton New Brunswick, and Lafayette Louisiana.
Given says while those cities might be better recognized for their francophone cultures, it is an important part of Grande Prairie’s identity as well.
“I think there’s maybe not a high recognition of the fact that Grande Prairie does have a very large Francophone community. Even though I don’t speak french myself, I know that we have a many and growing Francophone population in our schools and our ACFA régionale Grande Prairie has been growing.”
Given says he intends to write a letter to Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume a request for Grande Prairie be included in the new network.