Universite de Sudbury officials say more to come on its future

The president of Universite de Sudbury made an impassioned plea to allies of the francophone community on Monday morning in English at Franco-Ontarian Day as the school continues to try and garner support from the provincial government.

Earlier this year, the Minister of Post-Secondary Education revealed Ontario would not be providing funding to Universite de Sudbury, citing a lack of need.

"I do hope more and more people will join us in the ongoing movement to provide students in Sudbury a student-experience that reflects the best of all the post-secondary institutions that Sudbury has to offer," said Serge Miville, in English, as part of Franco-Ontarian day. "I have to say it's a duty, it's a mandate, a mandate given to us by stakeholders and community members. We must work together to deliver on this promise. A bilingual and tri-cultural campus cannot exist without governance, mutual respect and partnership."

CTV News asked Miville for an update on where things stand with their current efforts.

"Yeah so I think one of the important things to note is that during the summer the government and Minister Mulroney notably said they're going to maintain the dialogue with the University of Sudbury on the project for a French-language university in Sudbury so we're working diligently on that right now. We spent a whole summer working on that, we're keeping working on that, we're looking forward to being able to give a few announcements but stuff is still in the works right now," he said.

LACK OF FUNDING

Miville says stakeholders, students, community members have been clear on what they want to see. They want a student-focused, partnership-driven facility.

"More and more of Queen's Park knows this. Sudbury is one of the best places to live in Ontario and we're going to make it even better," said Miville.

NDP MPPs Guy Bourgouin and Jamie West used the day to speak out during Question Period over what they say has been the lack of funding for a fully francophone university.

"It is unacceptable for the government to make this decision," said Bourgouin. "Not only was it made without considering the needs and demands of the Franco-Ontarian community in the Middle North, but also with a lack of transparency by refusing to share essential documents leading to the refusal to fund a university by, for and with. We will not give up, Franco-Ontarians deserve and will have a fully francophone university in Sudbury."