University of Sudbury president Serge Miville spoke of “le rêve” (meaning “dream” in French) during an April 29 press conference in which the university received $1.9 million from the federal government.
For years, the Franco-Ontarian community in Northern Ontario has dreamed of a Francophone university “by and for” the community here in the North. The federal funding helps the Université de Sudbury take steps toward that dream.
“It’s a great day for everyone,” Miville said.
In the spring of 2021, with Laurentian University’s decision to cut ties with the federated universities operating on campus, the University of Sudbury announced it was becoming an autonomous French-language university under the principle of governance “by and for” the Francophone community.
Then, in September of last year, the Board of Regents of the University of Sudbury unanimously passed a resolution to transform the institution into a university governed by and for Francophones.
The classrooms at the University of Sudbury — not to mention at the two other federated universities on LU’s campus, Thorneloe University and Huntington University — remain empty for now as a result of Laurentian’s actions.
There are still significant hurdles to surmount when it comes to getting the necessary funding and regulatory approvals in place for the University of Sudbury’s plans.
The two-year federal funding allows the University of Sudbury to prepare its application to the Ontario Post-secondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB) for an organizational assessment.
Among other things, this exercise will allow the University of Sudbury to develop a business plan.
The project is funded under the Canada–Ontario Agreement on Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction (2020–2021 to 2022–2023).
Through this apolitical process, experts will be “evaluating the University of Sudbury’s capacities as an institution,” Miville said. “That is the path forward.”
He said he doesn’t have any timelines just yet as to when the University of Sudbury will begin to reshape its programs and hire faculty, and reopen to students.
“Afterwards, we'll be able to discuss further what the academics will be actually looking like, but that's part of the process, is to evaluate the needs,” Miville said.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor, the federal Minister of Official Languages, was on hand at the University of Sudbury on Friday for the announcement, as were all four of the area’s MPs and MPPs.
“We certainly as a government had made it very clear during our tenure that we want to be there to provide support to institutions in official minority communities like Sudbury,” said Petitpas Taylor.
“So therefore today, we want to make sure that we provide the support that is needed for them (the University of Sudbury) to become independent, and the step forward in order to make sure that we provide support for the vitality of the French community in Sudbury.
“So again, we’re very, very pleased to be here to work in collaboration with the university and also to work in collaboration with the province of Ontario.”
While it’s good news the federal government is “coming to the rescue,” Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gélinas questioned why the provincial government was not providing the funding to the University of Sudbury as it undergoes these regulatory hurdles.
“The problem is that this (post-secondary education) is a provincial responsibility,” she said.
“The provincial government knows full well that University of Sudbury has to go through this process. They know about this, they told them that they have to do this, and yet they give them zero money to get that done.”
She said the same thing happened when Université de l'Ontario français, the new francophone university now operating out of Toronto, was undergoing the same regulatory hurdles. Yet English projects undergoing the same process were funded by the province, Gélinas said.
“It took 18 months of work to let the federal government pay 100 per cent of the fees for this (Université de l'Ontario français),” Gélinas said.
“It took since September for the provincial government to agree to ask the federal government and to let them pay 100 per cent of the fee (for the University of Sudbury). It makes us feel like second-grade citizens, like we don't matter, like we don't count.”
Sudbury.com has reached out to Ontario Minister of College and Universities Jill Dunlop for comment on the matter. We will update this story at such time we receive a response.
Nickel Belt Liberal MP Marc Serré explained the federal government cannot fund post-secondary projects directly — the provincial government has to make the ask.
Dunlop submitted the application for the University of Sudbury a month ago, he said.
Serré said while he was able to make the announcement, there has been a lot of work done over the decades by the Franco-Ontarian community to make Northern Ontario education “by and for” francophones a reality.
“We have it with our school boards, we have it with our college, and university is the next step,” he said.
Heidi Ulrichsen is the associate content editor at Sudbury.com. She also covers education and the arts scene.
