Mr. Speaker, the member's question allows our government to bring to this House an update on the issue. Post-secondary institutions play a crucial role in the vitality and enhancement of our official-language minority communities.

Last November, Doug Ford's Conservatives launched a direct attack on the Canadian Francophonie. We, on this side of the House, will always be willing to defend and promote the French fact across the country.

Our government is fully prepared to support the province in this project. We have said it many times. We will contribute up to 50%. The money is on the table, but the provincial government is leaving it on the table. Since the Government of Ontario publicly announced its decision to suspend the funding for l'Université de l'Ontario Français in November 2018, our government has taken every possible step to move this agenda.

In addition to the many communications between our two levels of government to advance this file, the Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie has twice written to Ontario government ministers to offer federal support and indicated many times that our government was open to working with the Ontario government to support this major project.

On January 13, 2019, she also publicly announced $1.9 million in funding directly from the budget of the action plan for official languages 2018-2023 to ensure the business continuity of the start-up activities of the l'Université de l'Ontario Français until January 2020.

This funding will support their preliminary work to establish the Francophone knowledge and innovation hub in Toronto and develop close ties between the agencies and organizations that support the francophone community.

This hub could host l'Université de l'Ontario Français once it is established, as well as over a dozen partners. This funding will be part of the total federal contribution to the project.

It is now up to the Government of Ontario to make an official request and to take this project seriously. Any contribution by our government to the establishment of the l'Université de l'Ontario Français is conditional on the provincial government submitting a funding application for our federal support programs and committing to at least 50% of costs.

Alaina Lockhart

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