Senator Moncion: In the case of Campus Saint-Jean, if we look at the enrolment, there are currently close to 750 students, but it gets funding for only 450 students. The campus gets no funding at all for the other 300 students. It is already underfunded by the provincial government.

The other thing you asked is how the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act can help. That’s the point of this bill. We want provincial governments to be accountable for their education responsibilities toward both anglophones and francophones.

Campus Saint-Jean’s situation is unusual because there is a main campus, which is anglophone and provides funding for the francophone group, but when there are cuts to be made all across campus, they cut deeper for the francophone campus.

One thing the University of Alberta can do is gradually reduce the resources available to Campus Saint-Jean so that it can no longer function. In the comments received from Dean Mocquais, we learned that they had no money to invest in infrastructure, so their laboratories are aging. Students want modern labs. Once they enter the labour market, they’ll be working in modern facilities. The campus doesn’t even have the money to improve its labs and its library. There are infrastructure problems. Campus Saint-Jean is being squeezed as much as possible, while the university keeps its funds for the main campus.

What can the federal government do? One of the solutions we propose is that federal government funding for francophone institutions go directly to the institutions rather than through the provincial government.

How can the Bankruptcy Act help Campus Saint-Jean? I’m not sure that it can, since Campus Saint-Jean depends on the University of Alberta, but by no longer being subject to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, universities would no longer be able to use that mechanism to walk away from their creditors. The goal is to make provincial governments accountable and responsible. We also want to ensure adequate funding so that universities function optimally, so they can offer all the required services and so francophone universities get the funding they are due.

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