This certainly affects us, as it does everyone else, although some other institutions may be more affected. We've had emergency meetings on this over the last few days, as you can imagine.
In my opinion, what is most shocking about this decision is that the Official Languages Act has just been modernized and a new Official Languages Action Plan launched. And yet a Minister of the Crown chooses to make a decision that is going to be downright detrimental to French-language establishments. I think the Minister put up a lot of resistance to this argument. I thought it was a bit odd that he said post-secondary institutions wanted students at a discount. I think what we're really trying to do is make sure we have access to this “incubator,” these foreign students who play a very important role in the country's francophonie, from Acadia to Western Canada.
We still find ourselves in an unstable situation because of the cap on the number of study permits issued to foreign students. I think we were caught by surprise, as leaders of post-secondary institutions. We're a little concerned that the federal government can simultaneously announce an update to the law and a new action plan and make a decision that's really going to hurt a lot of institutions.