Confusing and conflicting agendas: Federalism, official languages and the development of the bilingualism in education program in Ontario, 1970-1983

Journal of Canadian Studies, Spring 2001 by Matthew Hayday

Ontario's first major financial concern was the allocation of the formula payments, which it found unsuited to its needs. Second-language instruction was a much higher priority for the province, as it served a much larger segment of the population and was more popular politically. The provincial government claimed that the cost of providing core French second-language instruction in small time units to anglophones ($525/FFE) exceeded that of full-time French minority-language education ($274/FTE),51 and thus wanted the levels of the formulas altered. Accordingly, in 1977, the CMEC proposed that the percentage level for second-language instruction be raised to 15.8 per cent.52 The figure for minority-language education was left at the lower level of nine per cent, reflecting the general lack of interest in the provinces for the minority-language aspects of the federal programme and the lower FTE costs.

Ottawa was not receptive to the provincial demand for increased levels of formula funding. Federal officials did not like the fact that these formulas involved uncontrolled expenditures that had steadily risen over the course of the decade, and thus the federal government refused to consider increasing the formula payments.53 In fact, one of the first steps taken by the federal government after the expiration of the fiveyear agreement in 1979 was to impose a $170 million cap on funding to the BEP, of which $140 million would go to formula payments.54 This represented a reduction of $38 million55 from the previous year. Once funds were proportionately allocated, the provinces received less than the percentages indicated under the original formulas.

A key element of the federal negotiating position was its desire to fund new developments in official-language education programmes, rather than merely subsidizing provincial education costs. This was especially true in the cases of Ontario and Quebec, where the bulk of the federal movies went to pay for programmes initiated before the BEP came into existence. One of the caveats of the original agreement for the Bilingualism in Education Program was that the funds would go towards funding "additional" costs incurred by the provinces as a result of their providing second-language and minority-language education; however, this concept of an "additional cost" had never been defined. Seeking to rectify this situation, the federal government announced its intention to allocate a certain proportion of the BEP funds to new programmes of a developmental nature, instead of merely funding long-term maintenance costs. The federal government proposed that this proportion be set at one-fifth of the total funding for the first year of a five-year agreement, and this was to increase by one-fifth for each year of the programme, so that by the fourth year of the agreement only one-fifth would be allocated to ongoing maintenance costs.56

The federal government also wished to have an accurate accounting of the extra costs incurred by the provinces. Indeed, a federal study found that Ontario's calculation of extra costs included several expenses that would have been incurred regardless of the existence of the programme.57 The provincial interpretation of "extra costs" was quite creative, and included all staff working in contact with francophone students and programmes, regardless of the fact that these staff and services, including secretaries and accountants, would be a budget requirement regardless of the language of the student.58