Official Languages committee  I was talking just now about the importance of the Campus Saint-Jean in training our teachers. So if we cannot train teachers, we won't have qualified staff in our schools. That's the first consequence. You can see what effect that can have. The Campus Saint-Jean also trains peo

Official Languages committee  Yes, of course. It is difficult to understand the logic of that decision. The amount we were requesting for the Campus Saint-Jean was very modest. The government decided to spend money on other postsecondary institutions, but ignored the only French-language postsecondary institu

Official Languages committee  I completely agree that the situation is dire. As I said, we are part of the resistance.

Official Languages committee  I will answer in French. The assimilation of Canadian francophones outside Quebec is not a new phenomenon. We are seeing very high rates of assimilation in Alberta. If you speak French here, you are now part of the resistance. We need the federal and provincial governments to s

Official Languages committee  Once again, I will focus on post-secondary education and Campus Saint-Jean. The priority there is to review the funding the federal government provides to minority post-secondary institutions. Saying that it's in provincial jurisdiction and therefore a provincial responsibility w

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely. I believe there's definitely a way around that matched funding requirement. I am not familiar with all the funding programs, but in the case of the Université de l'Ontario français, the province did make a commitment afterwards. Certainly the commitment [Technic

Official Languages committee  Campus Saint-Jean is actually the only place in Alberta where teachers can be trained to teach in our francophone schools and immersion schools. Without Campus Saint-Jean, we cannot train local people to teach in our schools. We have noticed that people who come from elsewhere to

Official Languages committee  The province of Alberta provides funding on a per student, per faculty basis. In the case of Campus Saint-Jean, it provides funding for 70% of the students. In other words, for 30% of the students enrolled at Campus Saint-Jean, there is no funding from the province. Campus Saint-

Official Languages committee  It depends on the faculties and the quotas. In the case of Campus Saint-Jean, the effects are more noticeable because of two factors: the increase in enrolment, which has gone from 500 to 900 in five years, and the fact that studying in French, especially in a minority situation,

Official Languages committee  Actually, the total cost of the project is $8 million. The federal government was prepared to put in half of that, about $4 million. It's up to the province to come up with its share.

Official Languages committee  It's the same announcement. It's for the same infrastructure project.

Official Languages committee  At this time, it appears that the federal government is open to the idea of providing additional funding. Unfortunately, the mechanisms available to the minister require matching funds from the province. We are currently at an impasse because the provincial government does not wa

Official Languages committee  At this point, it would help us tremendously in the west.

Official Languages committee  Thank you. My name is Sheila Risbud, and I'm the president of the Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta, the ACFA. The ACFA was founded in 1926, and today it represents 268,000 French-speaking Albertans, a number that increased by more than half between 1991 and 2016.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. My name is Sheila Risbud, and I'm the president of the Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta, the ACFA. Founded in 1926, the ACFA [Technical difficulty—Editor]—