Question Period Note: Funding of the Campus Saint-Jean in Edmonton

Budget cuts to postsecondary education in Alberta will have important impacts on the Campus Saint-Jean of the University of Alberta, the only French language postsecondary institution in Alberta.

• Postsecondary institutions play an important role in the vitality and development of official language minority communities.
• It is important to protect the Campus Saint-Jean, which provides Francophones in Alberta with access to postsecondary education in their language, in their community.
• The government is pursuing discussions with counterparts in the Government of Alberta on the issues related to the Campus Saint-Jean, to ensure the continuity of this vital Franco-Albertan institution.

• On February 27, 2020, the Government of Alberta announced an 11% decrease in funding for the University of Alberta (which includes the Campus Saint-Jean) for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. This decision came after a provincial budget cut of 6.9%, which took place five months earlier.
o In 2017-2018, 842 students were registered at Campus Saint-Jean. It offers two undergraduate programs and two master's programs in French.
o The Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages met with the Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta (ACFA) in May 2020 in order to discuss the financial issues of the Campus Saint-Jean.
• Under the Official Languages Act, the federal government is called upon to encourage and assist provincial and territorial governments to foster the development of official language minority communities, and in particular to provide them services (including education) in their language.
• For 40 years, the Government of Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC), on behalf of the provinces and territories, have guided their collaboration through a memorandum of understanding (the Protocol) relating to education in the minority language and second-language education, a multi-year multilateral instrument setting out the main parameters of collaboration agreed by government authorities.
o In September 2019, the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages announced that the Government of Canada and the provincial and territorial governments had agreed on the text of a new memorandum of understanding for the 2019-2023 period.
o Following the conclusion of the Protocol, Canadian Heritage enters into bilateral cost-shared agreements with each province and territory. These agreements include provincial and territorial action plans detailing the investment priorities of each government.
o Under these education agreements, the Government of Canada provides
$235.5 million per year to the provinces and territories: $148.7 million for education in the minority language and $86.8 million for second language education.
o In addition to this amount, another $15 million is available annually from 2019-2020 to 2022-2023 to increase support for education in the minority language. This additional support, announced in Budget 2019, is conditional upon provincial and territorial commitments to improve stakeholder consultation and reporting.
• A bilateral education agreement is in place with the Government of Alberta for
2019-2020, through which Alberta receives a contribution of $14.2 million from Canadian Heritage's official languages support programs.
o In 2019-2020, Campus Saint-Jean benefited from $2.4 million in funding from Canadian Heritage's official languages support programs. An additional $3.7 million in infrastructure funding (special project) was provided to Alberta to support the expansion of the Campus.
• According to the results of the Elementary-Secondary Education Survey (Statistics Canada), learning French and learning in French is on the rise in Alberta.
o The number of students attending French schools (first language) in Alberta grew by 63% between 2007-2008 and 2017-2018.
o During this same period, the number of students in French immersion programs in Alberta grew by 35%.

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