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

According to a news article published on September 6, 2023, the historic faculty room at Campus St-Jean, which housed artefacts belonging to the Franco-Albertan community, was dismantled without official consultation.

• Post-secondary establishments, like Campus Saint-Jean, contribute to a vibrant living environment, essential to the vitality of our minority communities.
• Our commitment to post-secondary education in the minority language is firm, and a testament to this are the new investments of $128 million in the 2023-2028 Action Plan for Official Languages.
• Campus Saint-Jean is a pilar institution of the Franco-Albertan community, and we will continue to work with our Alberta counterparts to strengthen support for this valuable institution.

• According to a news article published on September 6, 2023, the historic faculty room at Campus St-Jean, which housed artefacts belonging to the Franco-Albertan community, was dismantled without official consultation. To justify his administration's decision to empty the room, the new Dean, Jason Carey, referred to the limited space on Campus, among other things. The room has been converted into office space.
• Furthermore, on September 11, 2023, Campus St-Jean employees noticed that the bilingual sign at the front of the building had been replaced by a unilingual English sign. The next day, management issued a press release admitting that "[…] the omission of the French dimension on the Campus Saint-Jean entrance sign is a significant and regrettable error". The unilingual sign has since been removed.
• The 2023-2028 Action Plan for Official Languages: Protection – promotion – collaboration provides up to $128 million over four years, beginning in 2024–2025, to counter the underfunding of minority-language post-secondary institutions and to foster the development of enriching learning environments and the presence of strong educational institutions so that the resulting bilingual professional workforce can contribute to the vitality of official language minority communities.
• Federal Budget 2021 proposed to provide $121.3 million over three years, beginning in 2021-2022, to Canadian Heritage to provide quality post-secondary education in the minority language in Canada. With this funding, the Government of Canada provided more than $10.3 million over three years to stabilize and strengthen Campus Saint-Jean's programs and services while increasing its visibility.
• Under the bilateral agreement with the Government of Alberta covering the period of 2020-2023, Canada's contribution to the province's initiatives led by Campus Saint John is $2.9 million in 2020-2021, $2.5 million in 2021-2022 and $5.6 million in 2022-2023, for a total of $11 million dollars. This is in addition to $19.7 million in funding provided to Alberta since 2018-2019 to support complementary and infrastructure projects at the University of Alberta’s 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.
• At the start of December 2021, the Government of the province and the University of Alberta considered that they had no constitutional obligation towards Campus Saint-Jean, since section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly applies to primary and secondary educations. They therefore asked the court to strike the allegations in connection with section 23 of the Charter from the ACFA's lawsuit. The University of Alberta also argued that it was not obligated to fund Campus Saint-Jean in a specific way, for example its French-language teacher training program.
• On October 27, 2020, the former Minister of Official Languages forwarded a letter to the Premier of Alberta. In her letter, she asks the Government of Alberta to review its decision to reduce funding for Campus Saint-Jean, reiterating the importance of finding lasting solutions to restore and increase the institution’s services as well as its long-term sustainability and funding. She also mentioned that she continued to be available to evaluate the various possibilities for financial support by the federal and provincial governments.
• On August 17, 2020, the Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta (ACFA) announced legal action against the Government of Alberta and the University of Alberta, referencing a 1976 contractual agreement in which the Province and the University committed to operate, maintain, improve and develop Campus programming, and section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms pertaining to minority language educational rights.
• As part of its 2020 Budget, the Government of Alberta announced a significant restructuring of its funding to the post-secondary sector, including cuts in funding of 20% to post-secondary institutions over the next three years. This change resulted in a reduction in provincial funding to the University of Alberta, which consequently imposed similar cuts on its faculties and campuses, including Campus Saint-Jean.
• Campus Saint-Jean of the University of Alberta offers college and university programs in French to over 900 students, as well as French language courses for the general public.

None