Madam Speaker, I am sorry that I do not speak French very well. I did not study French in school. I am very pleased that my children were able to study French. I will fight so that all children in Alberta and all Canadians have that opportunity.
I want to thank my colleagues, the members of Parliament for Timmins—James Bay and London—Fanshawe, for raising this vital issue and ensuring that all parliamentarians have a chance to debate this, and I want to urge the government to finally take action to protect la Francophonie in Quebec and across Canada.
This particular debate is looking at the devastating potential loss of Laurentian University. I am deeply saddened by what is happening in this institution. Laurentian University is the only educational institution in northern Ontario with a robust, tri-cultural mandate, serving francophone, indigenous and anglophone communities.
Laurentian has been a key hub of instruction and culture for Franco-Ontarians, offering more than 150 courses in French, in addition to being one of the largest indigenous education providers and a vital provider of unique programs, such as midwifery training.
It is terrible that it has come to this. It is unbelievable, really, that the Liberals have been silent and have failed to protect and defend one of northern Ontario's biggest universities: an institution that is key and central to northern Ontario's largest city of Sudbury.
I cannot believe that it took my colleagues within the NDP to raise this issue and call for an emergency debate. I am thankful for the strong leadership of the MP for Timmins—James Bay and the MP from Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, who are fighting for northern Ontarians.
I have heard from many people who are deeply concerned about what is happening in Laurentian University. I am going to share something that I heard from one of the alumni. Michel Laforge is a resident of Sudbury, Ontario, and twice a graduate of Laurentian University. I am going to quote him:
This year, Laurentian sent face masks to alumni. I wear it, logo facing in, black side out, in solidarity with the Laurentian community's loss of jobs, colleagues, knowledge and research. I protest on behalf of everyone who depends or who has depended on this university. The “Laurentian 2.0” being discussed in restructuring plans behind closed doors will be a shell of its former self. My real alma mater closed its doors today. This is a slap in the face to people like me who strive to make northern Ontario a better place to live.
While I am deeply concerned about what is happening with Laurentian University, I want to raise the alarm about what is happening in Sudbury. The loss of infrastructure and the loss of institutions that support Franco-Canadians outside of Quebec is not just occurring in Ontario. It is occurring in my province, it is occurring in my city and it is occurring in my riding.
The federal government must do more to stop this insidious attack on the French language, on our francophone citizens and on our cherished bilingual country. As an anglophone member of Parliament from Alberta, joining the House this evening from Treaty 6 Territory, I want to raise my voice during this important debate, because I am proud to represent the strong, determined Franco-Albertans in communities across Alberta.
Madam Speaker, I know you know, but one such francophone community is my constituency of Edmonton Strathcona. We are very lucky to have an incredibly dynamic francophone community with strong institutions like La Cité francophone, incredible public service organizations like la FRAP and the Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society, and great festivals like FrancoMusik and the Canoë Volant. For those who do not know, who have not had the great privilege, this is a spectacularly beautiful festival, where my brothers and I came third in the downhill canoe races that were held last year before the pandemic.
There is another institution that makes Edmonton Strathcona, and indeed Alberta, great. It is one we have heard a great deal about this evening, and that is Campus Saint-Jean. Campus Saint-Jean is the only French-language university west of Winnipeg, and it serves francophone and bilingual students from Alberta and across western Canada with a wide range of undergraduate, after degree and graduate programs. It is a hub in my community. It encourages immigration, which in turn makes Edmonton Strathcona more vibrant and more diverse.
Campus Saint-Jean is critical to the vitality of the French language in Alberta and in western Canada. Its education programs train future teachers for Alberta and other provinces' primary and secondary French and French immersion programs. Without Campus Saint-Jean, Alberta would not have the qualified teachers it needs to serve its francophone program. In fact, so many Albertans want their children to access French and French immersion school, that there are long wait lists to enrol. Already, we cannot keep up with the demand, and we cannot meet our obligations to provide French school opportunity.
Today, we are at real risk of losing Campus Saint-Jean. In violation of the contracts that were signed between the faculty of Saint-Jean, the University of Alberta and the governments of Alberta, the promised adequate funding to operate, maintain, expand and enhance the school, the UCP government, the Conservative government in Alberta and the cuts to post-secondary education are threatening the very existence of Campus Saint-Jean, its very survival.
Just like in Ontario, Jason Kenney and his government is failing to live up to its obligations, and this has profound implications for the future of French-language instruction and vitality in Alberta, so it must be addressed by the federal government. The federal government must step in at this point. We need systematic change that acknowledges the need for post-secondary education, not just to grade 12, over long term and right now there is an enhanced for immediate support that does not rely on provincial governments to match.
Current federal funding is not sufficient to meet the intent of the Official Languages Act. Article 23 of the charter cannot be fulfilled without support for post-secondary institutions to train French-language teachers and to guarantee that Alberta's francophone parents have the right to have their children receive primary and secondary school instruction in French. The Supreme Court ruling affirmed this right and more. It found that minority language communities must receive equivalent support to the majority language, not proportional support as was argued in British Columbia.
The implications for Alberta are very, very clear. Unless Campus Saint-Jean is supported, Alberta's school boards will not be able to meet the equivalency standards. The federal Liberal government needs to step up to support French-language post-secondary education and to ensure that francophones across Canada have their minority languages protected.
I urge the minister to stop hiding behind jurisdiction and stop waiting for the provinces that we know are not going to act and we know are not going to come to the table. We know that we cannot rely on them to protect our official languages, so I will quote to the minister from the minister's own mandate letter, which reads:
...make new investments to help train, recruit and attract teachers in both immersion and second official language programs [and]...develop and promote new opportunities for language and cultural exchanges and invest in building infrastructure that supports Official Language minority communities, including schools and cultural centres.
We need a federal government willing to stand up for public higher education in northern Ontario, in Edmonton Strathcona and across Canada. We have had enough empty words. We within the NDP are looking for action.