(Quebec) The idea of imposing Bill 101 on CEGEPs would ultimately not be completely ruled out by Quebec, even though Premier François Legault has already said that denying access to public English-speaking CEGEPs for Francophones and allophones would seemed “extremist”.
Posted at 4:25 p.m.
In a scrum on Tuesday at the National Assembly, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, said that discussions were continuing on this subject in the government caucus.
“The position we currently have seems to be the right one. She’s not finished yet. There are discussions that take place in caucus. There are different opinions on that,” he said.
This information is revealed as parliamentarians proceed to the detailed study of Bill 96 modernizing the Charter of the French language, known as Bill 101.
In recent months, the Parti Québécois has campaigned for the government to change its position on CEGEPs. Various witnesses, including demographers and sociologist Guy Rocher, also invited François Legault to impose Bill 101 on the college network. The Liberal Party of Quebec and Quebec solidaire are opposed to it.
In his bill, the minister responsible for the French language, Simon Jolin-Barrette, is currently proposing to cap the proportion of students enrolled in the English-language college network at 17.5% and to limit the creation of new places.