Federal Official Languages Minister Melanie Joly says it is an historic day for Canadian francophones after the federal and Ontario governments signed a funding deal for a new French-language university in Toronto.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The federal and Ontario governments have reached a deal on funding a new French-language university in Toronto.
An agreement signed Wednesday says the two will spend $126-million on the project over eight years. The federal government will fund the university’s startup costs for the first four years, then share expenses with Ontario starting in the fifth.
After eight years, the province is to take over funding the university in the same way as it does other public postsecondary institutions.
Federal Official Languages Minister Mélanie Joly called it a historic day for Canadian francophones.
“I want to thank my provincial colleagues for reversing their initial decision to abolish the the university project at the beginning,” Ms. Joly said. The agreement was reached only after difficult negotiations, she added.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, her Ontario counterpart Caroline Mulroney said she’s “delighted” to “deliver on this important promise” a year-and-a-half after her Progressive Conservatives won power.
“It’s a long-standing wish of Ontario’s francophone community to have a university governed for francophones, by francophones,” she said in French.
Ms. Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives cancelled the previous Liberal government’s plans for a French-language university shortly after winning the Ontario election in 2018 but backtracked after an uproar among Ontario’s francophones.
The Tories changed their minds shortly before the federal election campaign began last fall and began negotiating for financial support from the federal government.
Ms. Mulroney said the Ontario government just put the project “on hold” while it cleaned up provincial finances.
“Of course there was a federal election, but for us it was really about doing the work inside the government to examine all the issues,” she said.
In a statement, the Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario said it’s happy to see funding for the new university secured and that the institution can begin hiring staff.
The university expects to start teaching students in 2021, beginning with diploma programs delivered in partnerships with other schools. The stated plan is to expand to 1,500 students by the school year beginning in 2026, with programs up to the master’s-degree level.
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