Ottawa, June 23, 2023 – Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) enthusiastically welcomes reforms to the Official Languages Act through Bill C-13, announced earlier this week.
After several years of consultations within the federal government and with hundreds of organizations and stakeholders concerned with official languages in Canada, including CICan, colleges and institutes believe that Bill C-13 will make a real difference in achieving equality between Canada’s official languages by strengthening the promotion and protection of the French language in our country.
CICan is the largest network of English and French-language colleges and institutes in minority and majority language situations across Canada. It works with the federal government and many national organizations and partners to advocate, build capacity and advance knowledge to benefit our members, who serve more than 700 communities across the country. As a multiplying force in the Canadian college and institute system, CICan responds to the needs and interests of students and staff in our educational institutions and contributes to promoting, enhancing and protecting official languages.
“We would like to congratulate the federal government, as this is the first time it has made a commitment to strengthen the provision of quality teaching and learning in French and in English at post-secondary institutions and recommends that federal institutions take positive measures to contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge in French,” says Denise Amyot, President and CEO of CICan. “These reforms will certainly strengthen capacity to ensure the sustainability of our French-language and English-language minority member institutions and the communities they serve.”
CICan wants to thank all those who contributed to the adoption of this reform, in particular the FCFA of Canada and the Minister of Official Languages, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, her predecessor, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, and their teams, as well as all the parliamentarians who supported this bill. Their commitment to promoting linguistic diversity in Canada is exemplary.
CICan will continue to work and collaborate with key players to ensure the vitality and sustainable development of Francophone and Anglophone minority communities across the country.
About Colleges and Institutes Canada
Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) is the national and international voice of Canada’s largest post-secondary education network. It advocates, builds capacity, and drives knowledge to strengthen Canada’s publicly supported colleges, institutes, CEGEPs, and polytechnics. With more than 95% of Canadians living within 50 km of a member institution, and thanks to its extensive reach around the globe, CICan works to future-proof communities in Canada and abroad.
We respectfully acknowledge that CICan’s offices in Ottawa are located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation.