Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to participate in your study on federal measures to protect and promote French in Quebec and in Canada.
The Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne, or ACUFC, brings together 22 French-language or bilingual post-secondary institutions across eight provinces. We work to expand access to French-language post-secondary education in support of a true continuum of French-language education, from early childhood to university, in francophone minority communities. Through these efforts, the ACUFC and its members contribute to the protection and promotion of French.
The ACUFC and its membership work with a number of federal institutions, including Canadian Heritage, of course. Our focus today is on just one of the measures affecting the post-secondary sector, the official languages in education program, or OLEP.
Created in 1970, OLEP supports provincial and territorial governments by contributing to the additional costs of providing education to official language minority communities. A portion of the funding is earmarked for post-secondary institutions in the form of special projects. Institutions do not receive the money directly from the federal government. It goes through the provincial and territorial governments.
The overall funding amounts set out by the federal government for OLEP have long been frozen. However, in budget 2021, the federal government announced $121.3 million in new funding over three years for post-secondary minority-language education, meaning education for francophones outside Quebec and anglophones in Quebec. To my knowledge, that is the first time the federal government has set aside funding specifically for post-secondary education in minority-language communities. The new funding will be distributed through the existing mechanism under OLEP.
I want to draw your attention to two major problems with this mechanism, problems that impede the efforts of our member institutions.
First, the mechanism requires that provinces and territories make a matching contribution in relation to the funding provided by the federal government. Provinces already make huge investments in post-secondary institutions and so often ask francophone minority institutions to draw the matching contribution from the funding already being provided. Consequently, the province's contribution does not constitute additional funding. What that means, in practical terms, is that institutions often have to rely solely on the federal funding they receive to carry out proposed projects. That funding, however, accounts for just 50% or so of the actual money needed to complete those projects.
Second, the mechanism allows only for the funding of non-recurring projects. In terms of the objectives tied to the $121.3 million, it is worth noting that the government is aiming to strengthen the institutional capacity of post-secondary institutions and stabilize the post-secondary sector, as per the applicant's guide. In our view, the objectives tied to the funding and the mechanism to distribute the funding are very much at odds. It is impossible to put in place a system-wide corrective approach that will have a meaningful and lasting impact on the post-secondary sector's institutional capacity and stability, and allow only for non-recurring projects.
While we realize that post-secondary education is an area of provincial and territorial jurisdiction, this new funding for post-secondary education signals that the federal government recognizes its responsibility to support the vitality of francophone minority communities. It also recognizes that post-secondary institutions are crucial pillars of the institutional completeness of minority communities. Consequently, the federal government has a responsibility to make sure that the mechanism to distribute the funding will actually have a long-term stabilizing effect on the post-secondary sector in francophone minority communities.
During the election campaign, the Liberal Party of Canada pledged to double the funding announced in budget 2021 on a permanent basis. Although we applaud this commitment, we must raise a red flag.
That is why we recommend that, in co‑operation with the provinces and territories, Canadian Heritage completely overhaul its mechanism for distributing the funding earmarked for post-secondary education in francophone minority communities, and that it do so before the funding is set out permanently. We also recommend that the mechanism give post-secondary institutions access to enhanced core funding in order to truly stabilize the sector.
We are ready and willing to participate in that effort.
My colleague Martin Normand and I would be pleased to answer your questions.