Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the members of the committee for inviting me to take part in the deliberations of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. The Université de Moncton has three campuses in high-density Acadian regions in New Brunswick, in Edmunston, Shippagan

Official Languages committee  The OLEP contributions have varied from $6.5 million to $7 million a year over the past 5 years. The only way to soften the blow of non-indexing for inflation is to increase the number of students.

Official Languages committee  As I mentioned, the current budget is about $120 million. As I also said, it has declined by slightly more than $25 million over the past 10 years as a result of annual cuts of $2 million to $3 million, depending on the year.

Official Languages committee  They aren't made by the province. They're simply the result of higher expenses due to inflation, annual salary increases and infrastructure maintenance.

Official Languages committee  Yes, I'm still talking about the three campuses.

Official Languages committee  Yes, that's correct.

Official Languages committee  No, the OLEP portion represents 5% of our funding. That funding is allocated to special projects, which must be carried out and which contribute to the Université de Moncton's activities. It may be used to promote student recruitment or to develop French-language research. These

Official Languages committee  Just as my colleague from Campus Saint-Jean mentioned, it's always hard to collect the provincial half of the 50-50 federal-provincial funding. For two years now, the provincial government has refused to make the $2.5 million per year contribution that was included in the letter

Official Languages committee  It was for the past two years.

Official Languages committee  That's correct.

Official Languages committee  It was an additional contribution from the province.

Official Languages committee  We get the federal contribution regularly, but the provincial government is normally required to add its share. It's that share that it refused to release on the ground that it was included in its core grant.

Official Languages committee  The federal share goes through the province, with the exception of the portion that goes to the Consortium national de formation en santé, or CNFS. For that program, it goes through a third party and is paid directly to the university.

Official Languages committee  There's no secret there: we have to adjust our spending based on revenues, and the only way to increase our revenues is to raise the number of students. International recruitment is one of our strategies. We're currently recruiting the maximum number of students in New Brunswick

Official Languages committee  We've done that. At the province's request, we submitted a scholarship plan designed to reduce tuition fees over a 10‑year period, which would let us admit approximately 150 more students every year and thus approach our objective of admitting 1,000 more students in the next four