Acadian Communities in Nova Scotia can now make a request for bilingual stop signs.
The province says they will be installing the signs on provincial roads in some Acadian communities this summer.
The effort to introduce the bilingual signs was led by Acadian students in Clare.
Executive director of la Société acadienne de Clare, Natalie Robichaud, who helped the students with the project, discussed why they wanted the signs.
“In 2024 we’re going to have the World Acadian Congress and the students wanted to do something with regards to that,” says Robichaud. “They thought ‘there’s going to be lots of francophones coming here in 2024, lets get bilingual stop signs.’”
She added the experience also taught the students the process of working with government.
The debate of whether or not to pay for the signs was put before the Clare community. The community chose to pay for the signs.
Robichaud says the signs help with recognition.
“This community is a francophone community, it’s a bilingual community so when you come in and you see a bilingual stop sign it says something,” says Robichaud. “It says: hey, here we speak both languages. And that’s really important.”
In Clare, 187 stop signs will be replaced with bilingual signs.
