As politicians wrangle over Bill 96, CEGEPS brace for major hiring and firing along language lines
A day after Quebec's ruling CAQ party decided to walk back a quota for how many courses English CEGEP students must take in French, the sudden change had more than a few people reeling -- educators, and also politicians.
"Liberals were in deep trouble, then CAQ were in deep trouble," joked the Parti Quebecois's Pascal Bérubé.
"Because the Federation of Colleges told him that was not realistic to apply this reform. So, they both make mistakes, you know. They try to help of save each other. How cute is that?"
He was talking about the rollback of a certain provision in Bill 96, the language law, that the Liberals first proposed, then tried to remove, and that the CAQ finally agreed to take out at the final hour, on Tuesday.
Beginning in fall 2024, students at English CEGEPs won't be required to take three of their course requirements in French, as originally proposed. Instead, if their French isn't good enough for that, they can add three additional French classes focused on learning the language itself.
That woudn't compromise their grades on their core subjects or their ability to get into university, as CEGEPs had stressed was a risk.
French-language minister Simon Jolin Barrette said the new rule will still do the job.
"French is crucial, but my concern is to give all Quebecers tools to speak and work and participate in society in French, and with three class in French we'll succeed [in] that," he said.
Liberal leader Dominique Anglade was still keen to take credit for the compromise, admitting it was her party that went too far in the first place.
"We told CAQ to go back to our rationale and make sure that it was fixed. So, I'm happy that they see this right now," she said.
About the backlash from the English-speaking community, she said their concerns were heard loud and clear.
"When they realize something is wrong, when they realize that there is something that was proposed that was wrong, they appreciate that we say it -- we recognized," she said.
"We do a mea culpa and, when we move on, we try to fix it. That's what we did, that's exactly what we did."
The PQ had asked for the stricter version of the amendment to stay and then sat by as the two other parties fought it out.
Bill 96 will go back to MNAs for a third reading and a final vote before the session ends in June. However, with the CAQ's majority, it's likely to pass easily, despite the Liberals' overall opposition to it.
COLLEGE DIRECTORS WARN OF MAJOR CHANGES.
At colleges, all the back-and-forth is adding another element of confusion to what will already by a dizzying series of changes, they say.
Tuesday's change in policy is positive, said Diane Gauvin of Dawson College, but there's a lot left to work out, including major changes in staffing.
"It is definitely good news. Our concern was the idea that all anglophone students would have access to education," she said.
But requiring all students to up their French classes, one way or another, will also mean significant cuts to the school's English faculty.
“Right now, if we had to impose it this semester, it would be 50 percent," she said of the cuts that will be necessary.
Courses will need to be revamped, and the deadline, while a couple of years away, is coming fast considering all that work.
"This particular piece of the bill, we're hearing, would be applied in 2024, which for us is essentially tomorrow," said Christian Corno, the director general of Marianopolis Collegel.
That, in turn, has teachers worried about their careers, he said.
"Our staff are worried about losing their jobs. I have people going up to me and asking 'am I going to be working a year from now?'" he said. "And the best thing I can say right now is: I don't know."
Nancy Beattie of Champlain College Lennoxville also says that recruiting at that scale won't be easy.
"Who's teaching these courses?" she said. "Who's losing their jobs, potentially?"
Then there are even bigger-picture headaches for college administrators, she said.
"There's a whole financing question around this as well. There's a lot of cloudiness around implementation," she said.
"And it's at the political level and the politicans haven't done their homework -- they don't understand how CEGEPs work."
This provision of Bill 96, around classes in French, also doesn't even begin to touch the true logistical alarm-bells around the bill.
Right now, the bill still maintains what English CEGEPs say is the most damaging element of all: a cap on the number of students they can accept, kept to 2019 levels.
"Effectively this bill strangles the growth of the English insititutions forever," said Beattie.
"We're not allowed to grow, we're not allowed to exceed a certain capacity in the network. So that hampers our abilities to respond to our community's needs."
In the final weeks before the vote is held, these concerns are set to be voiced increasingly loudly, including at a protest at Dawson College on May 14.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.