Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, allow me first to thank you, on behalf of the Yukon French Language School Board, for giving us this opportunity to address you this evening. With me is the Executive Director of the School Board, Ms. Lorraine Taillefer.
The Yukon French Language School Board was officially created in 1995, after several years of struggle to have the importance of school governance for the Francophones of the Yukon officially recognized. The CSFY and Émilie-Tremblay School exist thanks to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which recognizes the right of minority language communities to education in their language. Section 23 of the Charter also recognizes that these communities have the right to manage their education system. These rights go hand in hand and one cannot exist without the other.
On Wednesday, February 18, 2009, the Yukon French Language School Board filed a suit against the Attorney General of the Yukon before the Yukon Supreme Court. Pursuant to the Yukon Education Act, the school board has, for several years now, been asking for comprehensive school governance. This implies the management of programs, buildings, personnel, finances, as well as the right to admit non-rights holders into its education system and schools. The Partenariat communautaire en éducation, which represents a variety of Francophone community groups working in the educational sector, expressed its unanimous support for the legal action taken by the school board.
The CSFY is asking for an adequate level of funding to carry out a mandate that is not limited to the City of Whitehorse alone, but extends to all of the Yukon. The CSFY would like to have the means to provide French-language education of a quality equivalent to that of the majority. For that reason, we are also asking that a separate secondary school be built so that we may welcome our students into a facility that will appropriately respond to their needs.
The federal government, through minority language education bilateral agreements, funds the additional costs related to French-language education. The CSFY considers that this funding creates a fiduciary obligation on the part of the Yukon government towards the Franco-Yukon community. In its legal action, the CSFY highlights the fact that the Yukon government is not fulfilling that obligation. And so it is important that the Department of Canadian Heritage play a monitoring role and engage in direct consultations with French-language communities in the territory.
It is also important to support early childhood education for Francophone children, in order to ensure the sustainability of our educational system and the full development of our community. In the past, the federal government has demonstrated a will to fund the needs of minority communities in early childhood education. We believe that the federal government should make the development of the appropriate infrastructure for early childhood education services in minority communities a priority.
Community development cannot occur without the development of solid institutions, something which requires a partnership between the community and the government. Yukon's legislation establishes French as the working language of the CSFY, but it is very difficult to obtain services in French from the various ministries in the Yukon. For several years now, we have been asking for a seat on the territorial government's Consultative Committee on Services in French. The government's position is that this committee does not deal with education issues, and thus it is unnecessary to offer a seat to the CSFY. However, the CSFY is a member of the public and should, as such, have the right to services in French, as stipulated in the Yukon's language legislation. Through its personnel, it also represents students and their parents, who constitute close to half of the Francophone population.
The Yukon is the only territorial jurisdiction not to have an official languages commissioner. The Yukon Languages Act offers minimal services to the French-language community and no protection for aboriginal languages spoken in the territory. Although education and language fall within provincial jurisdiction, the powers exercised by the territorial legislature are powers that are delegated to it by the federal government. The current constitutional structure ultimately makes the federal government responsible for the enforcement of legislation in the territories. Indeed, it is impossible for the Yukon legislature to amend its Languages Act without the approval of Parliament, as stipulated in section 27 of the Yukon Act. Thus there is a need for the federal government to fulfill its responsibilities by affirming and promoting the development of Francophone communities in the North.
Thank you for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions.