Even though Canadian French is not exactly same as French, they share the same root. I once sit besides a guy who is from France during my project work. I could tell his accent is different, but it seems not problem to communicate with people using Canadian French.
Learning French at younger age will help kids to open the extra door for future. Internatioanl agency, major European countries will continue use French as major language.
Personally, I think learning Spanish is not that important, especially in Canada. Also, what kind of help can Chinese parent provide? almost zero.
besides France, a few African countries and QC, not much places else speak French.
Spanish is almost the second most spoken language in the U.S. and most South American countries speak the language.
but if you want to stay in Ottawa, I guess it's better to learn the language.
Many Europeans can speak more than one language and French is a popular one among others. I once did business travel with a coworker from Montreal to NY. To my surprise, the person had no difficulty in finding people chatting in French in Big Apple. I guess it was the accent that attracts to similar people. From the trip, I realized that French is like Chinese, it is hard not to find it in international cities.