Province nixes plans for French university in Sudbury

Ontario's Ministry of College and Universities has rejected a funding proposal from the University of Sudbury, effectively ending the school's bid to establish a French university in the city.

In a statement released Friday, the ministry said it considered a number of factors to reach its decision.

"The proposal from the Université de Sudbury, including the request for funding to create a standalone French-language university, does not reflect the current demand and enrolment trends, especially given the already existing capacity of post-secondary institutions to offer French-language programs in the Greater Sudbury area and across Ontario," the statement reads.

"The Ministry considered a number of factors to reach this decision, and it is one that we have not made lightly." 

Those factors included a review from the independent Post-Secondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB), a review of labour market data, and the increase of student interest in disciplines such as the STEM streams and trades.

Laurentian University severed its federation agreement with the University of Sudbury and the two other federated universities, Huntington and Thorneloe, in April during restructuring brought on by a financial crisis in 2021.

Since then, the university – without students enrolled or offering any courses – attempted to rebuild the school as a standalone school for francophones.

In June 2021, U of S president Serge Miville said he had hoped students would begin filtering through the doors by September 2022, a hope that never materialized.

The school had filed accreditation papers and proposed a business plan to the province, along with funding requests with the federal government. The feds pitched in $1.9 million in 2022 for the school to conduct an organizational review necessary for all degree-granting institutions in Ontario.

Still, not enough for the province.

In a 2022 report, the province said that northeastern Ontario was home to 19.7 per cent of the province's fast-growing francophone community. That compares to 43.1 per cent in eastern Ontario and 30.7 in the central regions of the province.

A spokesperson for the Northern Ontario Coalition for a French-Language University said Saturday it deplores this decision, but isn't surprised.

"This government does not listen to the community," said Denis Constantineau. "It's hard to believe that in 2023, francophones in our region don't have the right to their own university, an institution dedicated to them in its own right.

"We will still have to live with the disastrous consequences of Laurentian University's decisions to cut 28 French undergraduate and graduate programs in 2021, laying off the professors who taught there, and forcing the
departure of many young francophones from the region."

Constantineau said in a written statement that the coalition would be consulting with other stakeholders involved in the University of Sudbury project to determine their next steps.

"The fight is not over," he said. "This attempt at appeasement by Queen's Park is outdated. The French-speaking community has long demonstrated that it is capable of showing determination until justice is done."