Campus Saint-jean to receive short-term funding
Ottawa, province chip in to bolster programs at U of A's francophone school
The University of Alberta's Campus Saint-jean finally has an answer to its funding question. Ottawa, the province and the university itself will provide $13.3 million over the next three years with the feds ponying up the lion's share.
Speaking at the university's francophone campus in Edmonton's French Quarter on Friday, federal Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault said Ottawa is providing $10.3 million of the sum.
Along with a $2.5 million contribution from Alberta's government, and $500,000 from the university, the funding will help Campus Saint-jean add French courses and programs, hire more teachers and improve infrastructure such as Wi-fi internet connectivity, science lab equipment and digital classrooms.
Campus dean Pierre-yves Mocquais said the support will reinforce programs, services and visibility for the francophone institution, which, he added, is the result of a partnership between the three funders.
“All relationships, they go through tests and difficulties,” he said, “but also through periods of harmony and unity.”
In April 2021, the federal government allocated $121.3 million over three years for post-secondary institutions teaching French in communities where it is a minority language. However, it also stipulated that any grant would require matching funds from corresponding provincial governments.
At the time, Alberta Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said the province provides funding to the University of Alberta, which it entrusts “to make appropriate decisions with their resources.”
Earlier that year, the province's budget cut the university's funding by $60 million.
While education falls under the province's purview, students at Campus Saint-jean have called on the federal government for help after budget squeezes led to the loss of 20 per cent of programming at the francophone institution, forcing some students to take classes in English to finish their degrees.
The following August, Ottawa adjusted the ratio and — without giving a specific dollar figure — offered to pay for 95 per cent of additional funding for Campus Saint-Jean for the first year, 75 per cent in the second year and 50 per cent in the third as long as the province antes up. That month, Nicolaides' office said the government would review the funding program.
Joining the announcement Friday, Nicolaides maintained direct funding for Campus Saint-jean, the only French-language, university-degree program west of Manitoba, was an “exception” to the rule.
The campus's student association, however, previously noted that a short-term cash injection doesn't address chronic underfunding.
Nicolaides didn't say what would happen to the campus's funding after the three-year period, but said the province is happy to review the program in two or three years and re-evaluate.
“I imagine my counterpart — the person that would come after me — would be in a position to make a decision about how best to proceed in the future,” he said.
Work on the Campus Saint-jean file won't end with Friday's announcement, Boissonnault added.
“If Albertans are going to represent us in the halls of power and we have a bilingual country — which is not changing — then this place needs to thrive and survive and be here 100 years from now,” he said. “That's the kind of collective work we will do together.”