SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Fighting for a gym in its Yellowknife school, the NWT's French school district is taking the GNWT to court.

There's also a legal question of whether the education minister can prevent some students from enrolling in French schools.

Principal Yvonne Careen stands outside of Ecole Allain St. Cyr on Nov. 1. The French school board has been fighting for an expansion of this school, which would include a gym, and of another in Hay River, as well as greater control over enrolment, in NWT Supreme Court since Oct. 19. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

"We're being treated in a way that's unequal to anglophone people," said Roger Lepage, a lawyer representing the Commission scolaire francophone de division, Territoires du Nord-Ouest.

The trial started on Oct. 19 in NWT Supreme Court.

The French school district operates two French schools in the NWT - Ecole Allain St. Cyr is located in Yellowknife and Ecole Boreale in Hay River. One aspect of the case is whether enrolment figures for the schools warrant the estimated $15 million to $20 million in expansions for both facilities.

There are close to 111 students enrolled at Ecole Allain St. Cyr this year. The costs for upgrading that building alone are estimated to be about $10 million, which include adding a gym, a home economics kitchen and more classrooms.

"It's the only school in Yellowknife without a gym," said Lepage.

K'alemi Dene School in Ndilo, which is affiliated with the Yk1 school district, was upgraded last year from a renovated portable to a full 1,800 square-metre school, which cost between $8 and 10 million. The new K'alemi school does not have a gymnasium either, and with 100 students it's already nearing its 125-student capacity. As well, Kaw Tay Whee School in Dettah does not have its own gym.

The lawyer for the GNWT, Max Faille, argued that the French schools have adequate facilities for the number of students enrolled, and that Ecole Allain St. Cyr as it stands now may already be more than what the government might be required to provide under the constitution.

"We're talking about fairly small schools and both from a government perspective and under the constitution ... there is an alignment between (enrolment) numbers and facilities," he said.

Faille argued that there are other projects around the NWT that are a greater priority right now, including much-needed projects at schools in Fort Good Hope and Inuvik.

The initial estimates in the 2010-2011 territorial government budget for large capital projects for the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment was set at $53.6 million.

"Obviously there's way more demands on government money than there is to fulfill those demands," said Faille.

"I think there are 10 schools in the NWT that don't have their own gym," he said. "In an ideal world they would all have their own gym ... but there does have to be this alignment between size of the schools and facilities that are available."

The court case also addresses the issue of Education Minister Jackson Lafferty's July 2008 directive that only students with parents who speak French or whose parents received their primary education in French are allowed to enrol in French schools without ministerial approval. Those who are already receiving their education in French are exempted.

Lepage replied that there are 31 French school boards outside of Quebec that are allowed to make such enrolment decisions themselves.

Suzette Montreuil, president of the NWT French school board, said she'd like to see the same rights given to the board here in the NWT.

"It affects the vitality and the continuation of our schools," said Montreuil.

She said there are students with francophone history who want to reconnect with the culture, as well as anglophones who want to assimilate into the culture - both of whom she argues should be able to do so.

"We want to preserve that sense of being a francophone ... it's about heritage, not just a language," said Montreuil.

Ecole Allain St. Cyr expanded in 2008 after a previous legal battle with the GNWT. The original school, built in 1999, had six classrooms and a daycare. Those renovations added two more classrooms and a library to the school.

The final oral arguments for both sides in this case will be presented on Dec. 9 in Supreme Court.

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