About 6% of P.E.I. residents speak a language other than French or English at home

The number of P.E.I. residents whose primary language at home was neither French nor English doubled between 2016 and 2021, according to the latest census release from Statistics Canada.

In the 2016 census, 4,575 P.E.I. residents said their primary language at home was neither of the country's two official languages.

By the time of the 2021 count, that number had grown to 9,080 out of 164,318 residents, representing 6 per cent of respondents.

Looking back over the past decade, the increase is even more dramatic, with the number having tripled since 2011.

The increasing figure reflects the success of P.E.I.'s immigration programs, which for years now have made the Island one of the fastest-growing provinces in Canada.

P.E.I.'s population grew by eight per cent between the two census counts, accounting for the fastest growth among all provinces.

The province's population was estimated to have edged up to 167,680 as of April 1, 2022.

That rapid growth has also created challenges, including a housing crisis and a shortage of primary caregivers, with 25,444 people on a registry waiting to be assigned a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

Mandarin now more common than French

In the latest census, Mandarin surpassed French as the second-most common language spoken at home in P.E.I.

Yifei Ban is with the Chinese Canadian Association of P.E.I. He arrived with his family from China in 2019.

Ban says one of the reasons the number of Mandarin-speaking families is growing is the fact that these days, P.E.I. is retaining more of the immigrants who come here.

More and more people choose to stay longer, or stay and live here.- Yifei Ban

While P.E.I.'s population has been growing, the province has also historically had one of the lowest immigrant retention rates in the country, with most of those who moved to the province through its provincial nominee program choosing to leave for other provinces.

"They would live in P.E.I. for a couple of years — so somebody would come in and somebody would leave," Ban said.

Now, he said, "more and more people choose to stay longer, or stay and live here." 

Ban said he believes other families find themselves in the same situation as his — with children who've grown up in P.E.I. putting down roots, and planning to start their post-secondary education in the province. He believes many have been sold on the advantages of living in a smaller centre rather than a big city like Toronto or Vancouver.

His two children, aged 11 and 14, "enjoy the local life," Ban said.

At home they speak only Mandarin, in part because Ban's father, who doesn't speak English, moved to Canada and joined the family after the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.

Language a link to cultural values

For Alfredo Nieves, speaking Tagalog in the home is a way to try to preserve not just the language from his family's former home in the Philippines, but to pass down some of the values and culture to his 11-year-old son.

For example, he said the Tagalog word "po" (which translates to "yes" in English) can be added to a sentence to show respect for an elder.

"We speak mostly [Tagalog] here at home," said Nieves, who immigrated to P.E.I. in 2017. "My son just can't understand most of it. But we want him to like it. We want him to know that the values are still there. So just by speaking it, kids will still understand where they came from."

According to Immigrant and Refugee Services Association P.E.I., between 60 and 80 different languages are being spoken in Island homes — a figure supported by the census numbers.

The association's Todd MacEwen says most immigrants are coming to P.E.I. to work or study and already have functional English or French when they arrive.

He said many families are like the Nieveses — trying to hold onto the traditions and culture from their old homes, while building a life in their new ones.

"Since they've been in Canada, they've subsequently had children who don't speak their original language. In a lot of cases, it's to keep that connection alive," said MacEwen.

"We know that a lot of our ethnocultural groups across the province celebrate all sorts of holidays throughout the calendar year that, again, ties in with their culture. I think language is a huge part of that."