Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Distinguished members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages, distinguished guests and colleagues, good afternoon.

By way of introduction, I would like to point out that, in my area of research, namely language policy, education is a favourite topic of research for many scholars, both in Canada and around the world. Education in the minority language is also a right that minorities hold very dear. It is through that education that a major part of the production and the reproduction of a minority environment reveals itself, its identity, its aspirations and its prospects for development.

The Université de Moncton is a good example of a university that participates fully in the development of its community. We can also mention the Université Sainte‑Anne, in Nova Scotia, the Université de Saint‑Boniface, in Manitoba, and the Université de Hearst, whose Rector has just spoken to us. With the same hope, we anticipate that the Université de l'Ontario français will play the same role.

We must also remember the key role played in the development of French-speaking communities by francophone colleges all over Canada, but particularly in New Brunswick and Ontario. An important issue was also raised in connection with higher education in French, namely governance by and for francophones. Without doubt, that type of governance distinguishes most of our institutions.

Other institutions have chosen to find a home in major universities, such as the Campus Saint‑Jean at the University of Alberta, the Dominican University College at Carleton University and the Bureau des affaires francophones et francophiles at Simon Fraser University. Finally, we have the University of Ottawa and the Université Saint‑Paul, which have chosen institutional bilingualism. In general, we are currently talking about governance by and for francophones. That is the preferred choice of the major educational institutions in the Canadian francophonie.

In my comments today, I would like to review with you the ways in which that governance is achieved, in order to ensure that Canada's institutions of higher learning in French can take more control over their development. I also have a recommendation to bring to your attention, namely that the Government of Canada adopt a policy to support post-secondary institutions in minority situations, pursuant to part VII of the Official Languages Act.

I will use the rest of my presentation to explain that policy to you.

First, I would like to say a few words about our context today. In this context, the players are aligned in such a way as to embrace the official languages as the result of a realization of the difficult situation of French, both in Quebec and in the rest of Canada, particularly during the pandemic. Furthermore, federal and provincial elections are on the horizon and certain demanding financial issues threaten to dampen our ardour. However, a major movement to modernize the Official Languages Act has been gathering momentum for four years, and the document entitled “English and French: towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada” has recently been published. Those are major factors that must be emphasized.

We could also add the historic coming together of francophones in Quebec and Canada, the Government of Quebec's forthcoming adoption of a policy supporting the Canadian francophonie, the Sommet sur le rapprochement des francophonies canadiennes, which will take place next week, and Bill 96, that seeks to modernize Bill 101. As we can see, many courses of action are available.

The Government of Canada and the French-speaking minorities agree that recognizing the principle of substantive equality must guide the renewal of and the progress towards the equality of French and English. There is no need for me to tell you how important this principle of equality is, because you have been talking about it previously. Undeniably, it applies to higher education in French in this country. I would put the University of Ottawa in a category by itself by virtue of its size. But, in general, all of the French-language higher education institutions in Canada, outside Quebec, have no more than 3,500 students. That gives rise to major financial issues. The University of Ottawa, in fact, is a member of the Group of Canadian Research Universities, the U15. When it talks about its financial problems, it's talking about problems that are not at all the same as those in other institutions.

As I have a minute left—

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