Governments of Canada and New Brunswick provide more than $6.6 million to Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick

The governments of Canada and New Brunswick announce a major investment in Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick

DIEPPE, NB, May 27, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Our two official languages are inseparable from our country's heritage. This is why the Government of Canada has committed to protecting and promoting our linguistic duality, and to fostering the vitality of official-language minority communities, specifically by funding postsecondary institutions to increase learning opportunities in the minority language.

Today, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, announced support of more than $6.6 million for three projects of the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB). Minister Petitpas Taylor was accompanied by the Honourable Daniel Allain, New Brunswick Minister of Local Governments and Local Governance Reform, and Pierre Zundel, President and Chief Executive Officer of the CCNB.

Through this funding, the CCNB will introduce a support model for continuing education and career plan management. This model will provide the student population with personalized training plans and resources aimed at integrating them into the labour market in their field of study. In addition, the project will give students tools that will let them progress professionally throughout their whole career.

The Government of Canada is providing more than $1 million to this project, while the Government of New Brunswick is providing nearly $700,000 over a three-year period.

The federal and provincial governments will also finance a project aimed at transforming the study programs based on an approach centred on the development of skills that reflect employment positions in companies. The CCNB will begin revising each of its study programs based on the technical and social skills identified in the labour market, in order to allow their students to develop sustainable and transferable skills in several different contexts and situations, to take on their role as workers, and to develop professionally. This project will be supported by funding of $2 million from the federal government and $1.2 million from the provincial government.

Finally, the Government of Canada is investing $734,00 and the Government of New Brunswick $921,779 to allow the CCNB to modernize its IT systems to improve the mechanisms for collecting, analyzing and using data to provide services to the student population and fully process applications online.

These projects are funded under the Canada–New Brunswick Agreement on French-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction from 2019–20 to 2022–23.

Quotes

"As Member of Parliament for Moncton–Riverview–Dieppe and a proud Acadian, I know that this investment will help the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick achieve its goals and stand out from other colleges across the country. The announcement today will enable the CCNB to modernize its education models and its technology, and allow it to offer the resources the next generation needs in order to access the labour market right here in our beautiful region."

—The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

"We are delighted to join with the federal government to support our French language postsecondary establishments under this bilateral agreement. We recognize that the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick has a role to play in offering programs which aim to prepare our Francophone students for their entry into the labour market. This funding will enable their programs and services to be improved in this regard."

—The Honourable Trevor Holder, Minister of Postsecondary Education, Training and Labour, Government of New Brunswick

"This is very good news for New Brunswick. These three projects will enhance the CCNB's ability to support the New Brunswick economy, bolster the province's Francophone communities and help students achieve their goals. The entire CCNB team is working together on these three projects. The CCNB thanks the governments of Canada and New Brunswick for their confidence in us."

—Pierre Zundel, President and CEO, Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick

Quick Facts

• The Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick has been a fully autonomous Francophone college corporation since May 30, 2010.
• The CCNB serves all Acadian and Francophone communities in New Brunswick through its five campuses located in Bathurst, Campbellton, Dieppe, Edmundston and the Acadian Peninsula. The CCNB is headquartered in Bathurst, in northeastern New Brunswick.
• Budget 2021 included an investment of $121 million over three years (2021–22 to 2023–24) to support high-quality postsecondary education in the minority language. These new investments will be made primarily through existing intergovernmental collaboration mechanisms to help provinces and territories meet pressing needs to help stabilize the minority-language postsecondary sector.
• This funding is provided through the Official Languages Support Programs, whose objective is to enhance the vitality of English- and French-speaking minority communities and promote the English and French languages in Canadian society.
• On March 1, 2022, the Government of Canada introduced an enhanced bill promoting the substantive equality of Canada's official languages, in order to adapt the Official Languages Act to a changing society. Among other objectives, the bill aims to address the decline of French in Canada, clarify and strengthen the section of the Official Languages Act dealing with the promotion of official languages, and support official-language minority communities.

Associated Links

• Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages
• Budget 2021 
• Action Plan for Official Languages – 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future
• Official Languages Support Programs
• Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick

SOURCE Canadian Heritage

(media only) Marianne Blondin, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, [email protected]; Media Relations, Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected]