Several Franco-Catholic missions were established from the 1840s to the 1880s. A mission typically consisted of a church and parish, after which a school was often introduced. In a few examples, a hospital, orphanage, or even a nursing home for the elderly has been opened. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate founded the missions established after 1847, but they relied heavily on French-based religious orders such as the Grey Nuns, the Sisters of the Assumption, the Sisters of Charity of Notre Dame d’Evron, the Faithful Companions of Jesus and the Daughters of the Cross to succeed. These missions formed the basis of Métis and Francophone communities from that time onwards, such as St. Albert, St. Paul and Lac La Biche, to name a few examples.
Confederation
Alberta became a Canadian province in 1905, but joined Canada as part of the Northwest Territories in 1870. Louis Riel’s provisional government negotiated the entry into confederation of these bodies with a Royal Proclamation (1869) for the protection of linguistic, religious and property rights. Article 110 was added to the Northwest Territories Act in 1877 for judicial and legislative bilingualism for the territories. In 2015 in the Caron decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Alberta government is not required to respect these rights because they were not explicitly enshrined in the Alberta Act in 1905.
Colonization
St. Albert was Alberta’s first colony. It was founded by the Métis who settled on river lots adjacent to the Sturgeon River followed by the French Canadians who later joined them. Francophone colonization to Alberta increased after 1870. The Lamoureux brothers were among the first in a wave of French-speaking settlers to arrive in Alberta from 1870 to 1920. Despite high expectations of Quebec to send settlers in large numbers, French-speaking settlers in this period came mostly from the United States and Europe. By 1885, French was the language of most non-Aboriginal residents in northern Alberta, but by 1916 it was spoken by only 5% of the population. Today, Francophones make up a little more than 2% of the population, even though the gross number of French-speaking people is increasing significantly, and today Alberta ranks fourth in terms of the largest provincial Francophone population across Canada.