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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Northwest Territories' only French-language post-secondary school has closed its doors and cancelled its winter classes, Yellowknifer has learned.

While officials at the College de Territoires du Nord-Ouest (College TNO) declined to comment on the reason behind the cancelled courses, the territorial government has confirmed the closure and that a similar French-language college is likely to open in the spring.

"We understand from the information that we have that the previous college that was operating under the Federation franco-tenoise will no longer be operating and that there will be a new francophone college coming on board April 1," said Dan Daniels, deputy minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

In an e-mail obtained by Yellowknifer, the managing director of College TNO, Jean-Pierre Joly, informed students last weekend that he was no longer working for the college due to "an insufficiency of funds." He directed all questions regarding classes to college board chair Paul Fleury.

Joly could not be reached for comment.

Fleury declined to comment on what is going on at the college, saying, "it's a little early in the game for me to say anything. I've got to look into things more and have more information before I can really say anything about it."

The college, which opened in February 2009, declared itself independent of the French federation on Nov. 25, 2011. Before this, the president of the Federation franco-tenoise, Richard Letourneau of Inuvik, served as president of the college as well. Two officials with the Federation franco-tenoise, who declined to be named, also would not comment on the closure, though they both insisted the federation is still affiliated with College TNO.

The GNWT has been contributing about $200,000 to College TNO every year.

"It's money that we get from the federal government under the official languages and education agreement," said Daniels. "So, as long as that money is in place we will continue to provide funding to the new college."

Daniels said funding to the college from Education, Culture and Employment was not interrupted, and that the post-secondary school has already received all of its funding for the current school year.

"The funding that we had with them would have been for the 2011-12 school year, so it would have been up to March 31," he said.

It is unclear whether College TNO will have to repay any of the money it received in funding as a result of cancelling its winter schedule. Daniels said this will depend on the college's end-of-year financial report.

"It will be our intention to follow up with the new college entity to make sure everything is in order," he said.

The winter semester was to include second language courses in French, Tlicho and South Slavey languages, and Spanish, and Italian. These classes were set to begin between Jan. 30 and Feb. 2, and cost between $112 and $235 for a nine-week course.

The College TNO was also offering multiple continuing education courses. According to the website, most continuing education courses are taught in French. The college also offered credited vocational training courses in French for special needs assistants, early childhood educators, event managers and health-care assistants.

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