French-language school board lobbies MPs

SUMMERSIDE – Members of P.E.I.’s French-language school board reminded Canada’s MPS that French-language schools are the pillars of the vitality of official language communities and bilingualism in Canada, during a meeting in Ottawa on Feb. 7 and 8.

The sessions were organized by the Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones (FNCSF) to remind legislators that Canada should invest significantly more in minority-language education.

The FNCSF is a national organization dedicated to the interests of Canada’s 28 Frenchlanguage school boards outside Québec.

They say the budget for the federal government’s Official Languages in Education Program (OLEP) has stagnated for many years. In addition, the FNCSF is lobbying for an increase to the OLEP amounts provided to French-language school boards in order to respect their exclusive managerial powers awarded by the Supreme Court based on Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The CSLF’s chair, Emile Gallant, is convinced that the meetings will bear fruit.

“The MPs realize that education is the most important public sector in the vitality of Frenchlanguage communities outside Québec,” he said.

“The federal and provincial governments are presently negotiating the next five-year bilateral protocol on minority-language education, and the CSLF is confident that we will receive more funds and be consulted by the Province on how OLEP funds are invested in French-language education.”