Most of the 650 postsecondary students come from Alberta and British Columbia. We do a lot of recruitment in British Columbia and some in Saskatchewan. That is our main recruitment pool.
The difficulty in recruiting students from Quebec is the tuition fees. It costs $5,000 a year here, but only around $2,000 in Quebec. We need to find a way to bridge that gap with funding. But where we really have difficulty is at the international level.
I would like to see plans developed—and I have talked about this with the people at Immigration Canada—to make it easier for international students to come here from countries in the Francophonie, despite the bilateral agreements that exist between Quebec and those countries.
As you know, Tunisian students can study in Quebec for less than it would cost someone from Alberta. That is the reality. It costs $17,000 a year for an international student to study here, and $2,000 in Quebec. Obviously, that makes it hard for us to recruit students from abroad.
I believe that bilateral agreements between the federal government and certain provinces would be helpful, with a view to making it easier to recruit international students. It would strengthen the linguistic character of our institution and enrich our current population.
Many students here have spent time in Montreal or Quebec City, but especially in Montreal. They have come out West because of the job market. In particular, there are many francophones from Congo and Rwanda who do their postsecondary education with us. Our student population is very diverse, even among the francophone. However, much more could be done with respect to students from abroad and from Quebec.
Concerning the vitality of our communities, I will ask Jean, as the spokesperson for francophonie in Alberta, to answer that part of your question.