Yesterday, Minister Joly testified before the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages and said she had been asked about funding arrangements for the Université de l'Ontario français. She answered as follows:
Let me enlighten you. If there is one issue where we are certainly in a position to co-operate with the provinces, it is in the funding of school infrastructure. The Official Languages Branch has increased its funding envelopes considerably under the action plan. Whenever a province submits a project to us, whether it concerns early childhood, the primary, secondary or even the university level, that can be funded up to a 50% ceiling by the federal government.
In the wake of what we heard from the AFO, do you agree we're no longer really waiting for the Ontario government to take the first step. Instead we're expecting the federal government to request an emergency meeting with the Ontario government to propose that it fund up to 50% of the project and to discuss terms and conditions, who will fund the first four years of operations and who the last four.
This is urgent. January 15 is almost tomorrow. This must be done without delay.
This is the Standing Committee on Official Languages, at the federal level. What do you expect from the federal government?