In 2003, the francophone school board started legal proceedings regarding the underfunding of Franco-Saskatchewanian schools. The province of Saskatchewan has just amended its funding formulas, and consequently this will significantly reduce the funding that the school board had received over the past two or three years.
With the Court Challenges Program, we had succeeded in getting the government to change its funding regulations applicable to the school board, but, following the funding reform, the province failed to take into consideration minority rights. Without realizing it, it took action that hurt our funding. In my opinion the school board should begin legal proceedings once again against the province.
Currently, we are serving approximately 20% of the students who are entitled to study in francophone schools. As we continue to seek out and bring students to our schools, we realize, for example, that schools built for 100 students now have to suddenly serve 125 or 150 students, and that the school is overcrowded. In our opinion, something needs to be done.
Often, policy and administration are not successful in resolving the problem, and legal proceedings are once again needed to find a solution. I am unable to provide you details on all the cases, but, with regard to these two particular cases involving linguistic and educational rights, we see this constantly.