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BCPF REPS MEET WITH FOX

On Saturday, November 22nd,
five members of CPF spoke with
the Secretary of State Francis Fox
during his vist to Vancouver. The
main topic of discussion In the
hour-long meeting was the cur-
rent stalemate In negotiations for
a third Federal-Provinclal Agree-
ment for Bilingualism In Educa-
tion.

The Minister Indicated that the
main difficulty was the reluctance
on the part of some provinces to
account for funds provided by the
federal government. Another dif-
ficulty was finding information on
the additional (incremental) costs
of beginning, expanding or im-
proving French first and second
language programs, as opposed

to the costs of maintaining pro-
grams already In existence.

The Minister spoke positively
about the work done by Canadian
Parents for French In promoting
French language learning oppor-
tunitles and promised continued
support for their activities.

Attending the meeting were
BCPF President Judy Gibson,
District Liaison Doreen Braver-
man, Treasurer Paule Mac-
Donald, West Vancouver Repre-
sentative Sally Markham, and
Vancouver representative Millie
Helliwell.

For more information about
federal funding, watch for the
Dec./Jan. edition of the CPF
national newsletter.

Conference Sept./80

The A.G.M. and Provincial
Conference was held at Simon
Fraser University French Lan-
guage Training Centre on Sep-
tember 26-28.

76 people attended the con-
ference with 15 school districts
being represented.

This resolution was passed at
the A.G.M.

Whereas, each community in
British Columbia at the present
time must debate and consider
the merits of French immersion-
type elementary school Instruc-
tion Individually and

Whereas, the debate can take

years and therefore deprives
some children of the opportunity
to become bilingual; and

Whereas, many families In the
Province of British Columbia are
being denied the opportunity to
take advantage of the Ministry of
Education approved programs,
therefore be it

RESOLVED, that all children In
the Province of British Columbia
should have the right to receive
their education in the official
language of their parents’ choice,
where numbers warrant.

Workshop Reports

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