Yukon francophone school board meets with new Education minister

The Yukon's francophone school board met with the territory's minister of education yesterday for the first time since a cabinet shuffle earlier this month.

School board officials met with Doug Graham, who took over the post from Elaine Taylor in the shuffle, and the board president says he's "pleased" with the relationship so far, despite the fact that the school board and Yukon government are at odds in a case being considered by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Graham says the government will continue to look at options for a new francophone school, regardless of the outcome of the case.

"We're not waiting for any decision from the Supreme Court," says Graham. "We want towork with the francophone community, we want towork with the francophone school board, to get this sorted out as quickly as we can."

That's music to the ears of Ludovic Gouaillier, the school board's president.

"It's always been my view, I've only been president for a year, that there is always room for discussion, negotiation," he says."And, often times, the courts have said their rulings don't preclude the parties from finding their own terrain for agreements andmakingtheir own deals.

"Of all the many and important and perhaps urgent, in some cases, questions that are being discussed with the department of education, the building of a new school for secondary students ispriority number one."

Status quo

Graham andGouaillier both praised the relationship between the school board and previous minister Elaine Taylor, and expressed interest in continuing a similar association.

"I reiterated that we would be continuing exactly as Minister Taylor had previously to me," says Graham,

"My first priority is to get a school... Anything I can do to accomplish that goal I'm going to do, within reason."

The francophone community has expressed an interest in a stand-alone building in downtown Whitehorse. Previous proposals from the Yukon government included housing a francophone school as part of a new F.H. Collins High School, though not under Minister Taylor.

"The main question for the school board is obviously whether things will keep moving in the direction they seemed to be moving in...and that seems to be the case," saysGouaillier.

Question of admissions not "a big issue"

Although the school board and government are currently embroiled in a Supreme Court case that will decide who ultimately controls enrolment at the territory's francophone school particularly when it comes to students who don't have constitutional rights to minority language education both sides downplayed the dispute.

"I don't think that's a big issue," says Graham. "From what I understand, and from what I've heard from the school board itself, it's less than 10 per cent [non rights-holders enrolled] at the present time, and it's not a huge issue with the board.

"It's something we can discuss with them and come up with a reasonable solution."

"It's an important issue to be settled, but one that will have not a lot of impact on our operations," saysGouaillier. "The francophoneschool board in the Yukon supports the position that is being put forward."

"This being said, the practical impact of the decision here in the Yukon will be, if not minimal, then certainly less than it would be perhaps in other jurisdictions. Because as things have progressed since matters were first put before the courts, the francophone school board has very low numbers of non-right holders."

Both Graham and Gouaillier say they're looking forward to finding common ground.