English CEGEPs struggle with new regulations brought in by Bill 96

Wednesday marks the deadline for high school students to apply to Quebec CEGEPs, and administrators at English colleges say they are struggling with new regulations brought in by Quebec's new language law, commonly known as Bill 96.

Under the law, the Quebec government imposed enrolment caps at English-language CEGEPs.

"We go through waves of anger sometimes. We can't believe we're stuck doing this," said Marianopolis College's director general Christian Corno.

As of this fall, students who don't have a document proving they attended English elementary or high school in Quebec will be required to pass a French exam to graduate. CEGEPs were given access to a government database to determine who has to take that test.

"Perhaps, unsurprisingly, that access isn't really working. We were given the access very recently. Using the database is difficult, and full of technical issues. So we're finding ourselves, again, scrambling," said Corno.

That means going through thousands of applications individually, said John Halpin, director general at John Abbott College.

"For one person to put 4,000 permanent codes to figure out if someone is a certificate holder in this day and age is ludicrous," said Halpin.

There are also new caps on how many day students the schools can have.

CTV News has learned the caps for some of Montreal's major CEGEPs for the fall 2023 semester. Most are around the current enrolment levels.

• Dawson College: 7,915
• John Abbott College: 6,385
• Champlain College Saint-Lambert: 2,940
• Marianopolis College: 2,003

There are penalties for CEGEPs that exceed the caps, though the schools have yet to learn what those are.

"What happens if you go over that? Because the admissions process isn't an exact science," said Corno.

Quebec's higher education ministry said it will be up to the French-language minister to determine possible penalties, but those penalties have not been figured out yet.

The administrators say in some cases, they are still waiting for other decisions to be made by the new French Language Minister Jean-Francois Roberge.

John Abbott has hired more staff to sort through the eligibility documents to ensure it stays under the cap.

For many CEGEPs, it could mean delaying decisions on who is accepted.

"They should have done the work months ago. I don't know why they waited until so late," said Halpin.

Corno said he's worried the school won't be able to send out acceptance letters on time.

"There's a genuine possibility that we will have to push the timeline back," he said.