The Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) says the school’s call for more funds has been answered.
The Manitoba government has granted the school $350,000 to keep its French education program at its current capacity.
“Since 2017, USB has been receiving temporary grant funding from the federal government to expand admissions to the program to an average intake of 62 students a year from an average intake of 37 students, but that support is ending,” said Advanced Education, Skills and Immigration Minister Jon Reyes in a release.
“This provincial funding will make that expansion permanent, which will help ensure planning stability for the university and help address an ongoing shortage of French and French immersion teachers in Manitoba.”
During a press conference the USB’s president, Dr. Sophie Bouffard, said in French that roughly 149 jobs have opened up each year to replace retired teachers and workers, or to fill new positions created to meet the demand for improved French education.
According to Dr. Bouffard, there are more candidates interested in the program than they can accommodate.
“I think our Francophonie is growing” she said. “I think that the interests of parents to see that their children are educated in the two official languages of our country is certainly a part of it.
“I think it’s connected to double opportunities, to so many different things.”