Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would first like to send my regards to Marie‑France Lalonde and Paul Lefebvre, who are old friends of the Collège Boréal.

Ontario has 24 public colleges. Only two of the colleges are francophone and the Collège Boréal is one of those two. The Collège Boréal has 38 access centres, located in 26 communities all over Ontario, from Windsor to the small community of Hearst, about which you heard a presentation earlier. So we cover a huge territory. Each year, we receive a report that measures five areas: student satisfaction, graduate satisfaction, satisfaction on the part of the employers who hire our students, graduation rate, and employment rate in the students' field after they graduate. Those are our five performance indicators.

Ontario's 24 public colleges have been receiving that report for 21 years. For 19 of those 21 years, the Collège Boréal's report has shown it to be the best among Ontario's 24 colleges. For such a small institution, that is incredible. It demonstrates the power of the francophonie.

I want to bring up two points about the Collège Boréal. The first is about the scholarships that make it possible to study in French. Some were designed for immersion programs in anglophone school boards. The main campus of the Collège Boréal is here in Sudbury, as is an anglophone college. Francophone school boards are still losing students. In fact, 50% of them still choose to study at the anglophone college, in programs that the Collège Boréal also offers.

Let me give you an example. A number of years ago, I registered in a commerce program at Laurentian University. I had the choice of studying in French or in English. At the time, I was 18 years old and I did not recognize the importance of continuing my studies in French. What encouraged me to do so was the scholarship for French-language studies. When I graduated at the age of 22, I really did recognize the extent to which those studies had opened doors for me, in terms of culture, mastery of the language and career possibilities.

At 18, students are bilingual. They can choose to study in French or in English. We can make that choice easier for them. Scholarships for French-language studies, which no longer exist, would be absolutely critical. Some institutions can afford them, but the small ones cannot. This is my first recommendation. In my day, in 1988, the scholarship was $1,000. A scholarship to study in French, at a cost of less than $3,000, would really change things for francophone school boards.

The second point is about core funding. By that, I am referring to the Official Languages in Education Program, the OLEP. We have been receiving exactly the same amount of funding since 2003. That is to say that, 18 years later, given a cumulative inflation rate of 2%, the funding we receive is practically 45% less than we received in 2003. Some catch-up is therefore needed in terms of core funding. I am not talking about targeted funding, but about the core funding that allows us to become organized, to make preparations and to structure good programs. Funding is absolutely critical. Core funding, the OLEP, must, at a minimum, be increased to match the inflation rate.

Thank you for your attention.

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