The Modernization of the French-language Policy on Language and Cultural Planning in Education (Politique d’aménagement linguistique et culturel, PALC in French) has sparked hope and garnered praise. The province of New Brunswick is updating its “vision” for the success of the French-language education system and for identity-building.
Federal funding to achieve this vision, however, has not been updated. In fact, it’s declining.
Just like in rifle shooting, even if you’re a good shot, you need the right caliber to account for the distance between you and the target. In other words, you need the resources.
Let’s take English speakers in Quebec as an example. Considered a linguistic minority community by the Canadian government, they receive federal funding of nearly $487 per student, per year, to ensure a quality education in their language. This is their right, guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Their students achieved a very good score of 491 points in literacy on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). This score is equivalent to that of Australia and close to the historical average for the so-called developed countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
It is fair to conclude that the funding received by English-speaking communities is more than adequate. They are immersed in their culture on a continental scale and enjoy an enviable socioeconomic status. The federal government is giving them a cannon to kill a fly.
Any reasonable person would expect that our local Acadian youth would receive funding from Ottawa that takes into account the unique challenges of growing up in Canada’s only officially bilingual province. But no. Not at all.
Our equivalent agreement, signed in September 2025—known as the Canada–New Brunswick Agreement on French as a First Language Education 2024–2028—is the one that funds the initiatives covered under the PALC. And surprise, surprise—it allocates $484 per student, per year, to compensate for living in a minority-language community.
That meager $484 is actually less—even without taking inflation into account—than what we received under the 2005 Agreement. All of this is happening at a time when the education system is facing additional pressures, including the challenges posed by migration, the constant barrage of anglophone culture via social media and video games, to name just a few.
To get a sense of the challenge ahead, let’s simply consider the PISA literacy score for Acadian youth: 413 points. This is by far the lowest in the country, equivalent to a 4-year academic gap compared to their English-speaking peers in Quebec.
The scores of Acadians in 2025 are even lower than those of students in Kyiv, Ukraine, where schools have been directly bombed by Russian drones and missiles since 2022.
And yet we are in a G7 member country, in peacetime.
We don’t have the luxury of putting up with any more nonsense like “yes, but money won’t solve everything” every time we dare to ask how we’re going to achieve our goals.
We’re saddled with consultations, we shout ourselves hoarse at participatory workshops, and we scatter our efforts across 23 strategic priorities—all while everything has already been decided to send us into the fray armed with nothing but a slingshot.
Achieving the true equality promised by law is a struggle that should be within our reach.
But that will only happen if we do better than relying on the half-hearted measures that have led us to the current state of affairs.
Premier Susan Holt and Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Claire Johnson must reopen the Canada-New Brunswick Bilateral Agreement and renegotiate it.
Simon Ouellette is an Acadian from New Brunswick. This article was first published in French in L’Acadie Nouvelle on October 12, 2026.
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