Official Languages committee  Stable funding is obviously important for any post-secondary institution. Every one of these institutions undertakes long-term activities that require investments in highly specialized personnel, and expensive and complicated infrastructure. Having secure and adequate core funding is therefore essential.

Official Languages committee  It's important to understand that, because of our demographics, 40% of New Brunswick's job vacancies in the next 10 years will have to be filled by immigrants. The foreign student program is the best way to attract those immigrants. Any change to limit the number of international students will have a direct impact on our communities.

Official Languages committee  First of all, early childhood is the stage of life when language skills develop most. In the education cycle, the earlier the child starts, the greater their ability to learn French. Second of all, federal funding has supported the programs we offer in two ways. On one hand, we received direct support for early childhood education programs, and on the other, we received investments that helped us move towards skills training, as I said earlier.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely, and the funding needs to be predictable as well. To hire the people to teach those programs, we have to be able to convince them to come and work for us, and that means assuring them that they will have a job for years to come. That is the way to hire the people we need and keep them.

Official Languages committee  Certainly. We receive core funding from the province to provide our essential services, as well as project funding that allows us to invest in educational or technological innovations. We also receive capital funding. The Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick is unusual in Canada in that it's a Crown corporation, which means that the physical infrastructure belongs to the province, not the college.

Official Languages committee  Tuition fees have increased significantly with the arrival of more international students, so the core funding we get from the province is enough to cover our essential services. However, as my colleague Ms. Chouinard and I indicated, we really have to move away from an ad hoc funding model to a long-term funding model.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Members of Parliament, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick, or CCNB, regarding federal funding for minority-language post-secondary institutions. The CCNB has more than 90 programs of study and has admitted 2,324 students this year.