Ontario moving forward with a French-language university
The provincial government is finally moving forward with a plan to create Ontario’s first French-language university - likely in downtown Toronto.

thestar.com
By ROBERT BENZIE
Aug. 28, 2017

Just call it Sorbonne-tario.

The provincial government is moving forward on a plan to create Ontario’s first French-language university - likely in downtown Toronto.

Advanced Education and Skills Development Minister Deb Matthews announced Monday that Queen’s Park will soon introduce legislation for the proposed post-secondary institution.

“This is a tremendous step forward in the creation of the first standalone French-language university in Ontario,” Matthews said in a statement.

The minister said it would be “governed by and for francophones (and)...will provide access to high-quality French-language university education in the Greater Toronto Area and Central and Southwestern Ontario.”

While it will be some time before Ontario is home to anything that can rival the three Parisian universities that make up the Sorbonne, it’s a significant announcement for the province’s 611,500 francophones.

“Francophone culture and the French language have always been essential to Ontario’s identity and prosperity,” said Francophone Affairs Minister Marie-France Lalonde.

“This is strongly reaffirmed today with the government’s intent to provide high-quality postsecondary education to francophone students. The creation of a new French-language university, governed by and for francophones, is a critical milestone for Franco-Ontarians and future generations,” said Lalonde.

The government is acting upon the recommendation of the French-language University Planning Board, a panel struck last fall to study the issue.

Last month, the group led by former official languages commissioner Dyane Adam, tabled a 139-page report recommending the new school.

Adam’s panel said the main campus of the university should “be located in Toronto, specifically, in downtown Toronto.”

That’s in part because more than 430,000 people in the GTA speak French.

“The area’s French-speaking population is also characterized by diversity thanks to francophone migration from other provinces and an influx of newcomers to Canada,” the board said.

“Like Toronto’s population in general, nearly half of the city’s francophones were born outside the country,” it noted.

The roughly 80,000 francophone immigrants in Ontario “present significant potential” for expanding the provincial economy into the broader international Francophonie, the board added.

But NDP MPP France Gelinas (Nickel Belt), who has twice introduced private member’s bills for a French-language university, noted that no money has yet been earmarked for it and expressed concern about its proposed location in Toronto.

“The northerners are the big losers,” said Gelinas, pointing to the pockets of franco-Ontarians in Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.

“I have nothing against a campus in Toronto and more programs in the southwest, but that’s not what we need. The need is throughout the province,” she said.

“This has to be province-wide.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown, who has been promoting a French-language university since taking his party’s helm two years ago, said he was wary about the premier’s motives so close to the June 7, 2018 election.

“While I’m pleased that we are one step closer, I remain skeptical that Kathleen Wynne will do anything but make another empty election promise,” said Brown.

Adam’s report, meanwhile, said “the Ontario labour market would have no difficulty absorbing the number of graduates that would be produced by a French-language university.”

Her recommendation was that the new institution work with College Boreal, the French-language community college that has small campuses around the province, including inside the Toronto Star building at One Yonge St., and TVOntario’s French service.

“So as to create a resolutely francophone, dynamic and immersive milieu for its students, the new university would work collaboratively to create a francophone hub of knowledge and innovation with two main partners: College Boreal and Groupe Media TFO,” she wrote.

“By pooling together their physical and human resources and complementary educational mission, these institutions would open up innovative learning, training and research opportunities in French, and achieve economies of scale.”