Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the vice-chairs and members of the committee for inviting me to appear today.

I feel the need to start with a bit of background on Université de Hearst, which still has a relatively low profile outside northern Ontario, in particular, and Ontario, more broadly. Université de Hearst has been serving francophones for 68 years. I'd like to share some historical milestones. Séminaire de Hearst was founded in 1953 to provide secondary education to francophones. The institution's name and status changed in 1959, when Séminaire de Hearst became Collège de Hearst and began offering university courses. The third major development in the institution's history was in 1972, when it became known as Collège universitaire de Hearst and gained provincial recognition as a public institution. Since then, our funding has come from the province directly, not through Laurentian University, with which we have been affiliated since 1963. From that point forward, our affiliation with Laurentian University has been academic, as opposed to financial. In 2014, we were authorized by the province to formally adopt the name Université de Hearst.

Finally, just recently—on June 3—the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed Bill 276, giving Université de Hearst a charter and making it an independent institution. Once that process is complete, our affiliation with Laurentian University will come to an end. Université de Hearst will join the ranks of Ontario's 20 or so stand-alone universities.

Université de Hearst is firmly rooted in northeastern Ontario, with three campuses: Hearst, Kapuskasing and Timmins. Our contribution to the educational, social, cultural and economic development of the region's francophone community has been widely recognized by our many partners for quite some time.

If an institution like ours is not well connected to its community and fails to be responsive, it will struggle to survive in the face of social, demographic, economic and political change. In 2014, we completely revamped our post-secondary service delivery model. Here's a recap of what we have achieved since. First, enrolment has gone up by 125%, even though northern Ontario's demographics are not in our favour. Second, international students, from 25 countries, now make up 60% of our entire student body. Third, we achieved all of that with an offering of just three undergraduate programs.

Despite our nearly 70‑year history and despite our resilience and ability to innovate, our financial situation has always been—and continues to be—a cause for concern. From 2011 to 2021, we ran seven budget deficits. We have an annual budget of $8.5 million. We generate roughly a third of our revenue, and the rest, $5.8 million, comes from subsidies. Through the official languages in education program, or OLEP, we receive approximately $450,000 from the federal government. That amount has not changed since 2003 and accounts for less than 8% of our total subsidies.

However, to perform the role expected of us, we need significantly more support, especially from the federal government, which should invest in strengthening the institutional underpinnings of francophone communities. We are the federal government's natural allies in ensuring the vitality of minority communities, training a bilingual workforce and achieving francophone immigration targets. At stake is the federal government's responsibility to protect, promote and, ensure the vitality of, the country's linguistic duality. That is why the federal government must increase the funding it provides through the OLEP and establish measures to remedy the impact of the extended freeze on the federal contribution. Also necessary are new ongoing programs to support post-secondary institutions in minority language communities.

In conclusion, it is imperative that the federal government act to ensure the decline of our community institutions does not undermine the vitality of our communities, as Ms. Brouillette mentioned. Through Official Languages Act reforms, the federal government can take swift and robust action to ensure Canada's linguistic duality has a stronger and more sustainable future.

We are counting on your support.

Thank you.

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