Budget Cuts: Cuts Thursday and Official Languages

budget cuts: M lanie Joly, federal minister of official languages and La Francophonie, described the Ontario government's budget cuts as devastating decisions that will have a lasting impact on the more than 600,000 Franco-Ontarians and the more than 7.9 million francophones across Canada, according to Toronto Star. Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO Premier Doug Ford's government revealed the cuts Thursday in its fall economic update. In a letter that was sent Friday and obtained by the Star, Official Languages Minister M lanie Joly expressed what she described as her sincere disappointment at the provincial Progressive Conservatives' move to eliminate the office of the French language services commissioner and to scrap plans for a French-language university. The Tories said they were necessary in order to reduce costs and address what the party says is a 15-billion deficit left behind by the previous Liberal government. Joly said the promotion of the French language is central to our common approach of supporting our two official languages and defending the rights of minorities in Canada, and warned that eliminating the commissioner's position and abandoning plans for the university will have severe consequences on the vitality of the Franco-Ontario community and the Canadian Francophonie. These are devastating decisions that will have a lasting impact on the more than 600,000 Franco-Ontarians and the more than 7.9 million francophones across Canada, Joly wrote in the letter addressed to Caroline Mulroney, Ontario's minister responsible for francophone affairs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.