Expansion brings opportunity for growth at Iqaluit’s French school
École des Trois-Soleils hosts long-awaited ‘inauguration’ ceremony for new addition Saturday
A ceremony is planned for Saturday evening to celebrate the expansion at École des Trois-Soleils in Iqaluit, which more than doubled the size of the school. Michael Philbin, interim executive director of the Nunavut Francophone School Board, is shown outside the school earlier this week. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
People in Iqaluit are coming together this weekend to celebrate a $32.9-million addition to the city’s French-language public school.
The new wing at École des Trois-Soleils opened in September.
Michael Philbin, the interim executive director for the Nunavut Francophone School Board, spoke to Nunatsiaq News this week about what the expansion means for his community.
“I think it inserts itself … in the long-term vision of the school board, and also French language education in Nunavut, where we are promoting the continuum of education from early years,” he said.
“From kindergarten all the way to Grade 12, [it] is very important to have that continuum and housed in, essentially, one building.”
Philbin is new to Iqaluit. He started in his position in March, moving to Nunavut after working in Ontario’s French-language school system.
École des Trois-Soleils currently has 94 students, Philbin said, 12 of whom are at the high school level.
French-language instruction was previously only available for elementary-age students. A high school wing allows students to complete their education in French.
“Globally, I think, it’s good for the Iqaluit community and it’s also good for Nunavut as well,” Philbin said.
The original building was 14,255 square feet, but expansion has more than doubled its size to 37,870 square feet, according to Matthew Illaszewicz, director of stakeholder engagement at Nunavut’s Department of Education.
The cost to design and build the expansion of the school was paid for by the Nunavut and federal governments, Illaszewicz said.
The new wing features several features, including a science lab, shop class, study areas, a daycare called Petits Nanooks, and a gym which can also serve as a performance centre and community gathering space.
The gym has already been used for community sports and cultural events.
On the walls throughout the school are pictures and biographies of famous Inuit — something Philbin said is of “first importance” to have displayed.
Among the Inuit featured are former MPs Nancy Karetak-Lindell and Leona Aglukkaq, artists Tanya Tagaq and Elisapie Isaac, former National Hockey League player Jordin Tootoo, and historical figures including Nakasuk, the paddler who helped the U.S. military establish a military base that eventually became the city of Iqaluit.
“It’s very important to demonstrate you know the Inuit who have developed Nunavut and Iqaluit, and it’s thanks to them that we are here today to be able to grow as a community,” Philbin said.
The inauguration ceremony Saturday, starting at 6:30 p.m., is planned as a celebration of community and culture, he said.
There will be traditional food on hand, and attendees will be treated to performances from the Inuksuk Drum Dancers, Terry Uyarak and Jens Jeppesen.
The ceremony was originally to take place in December but was cancelled due to weather.
“Hopefully, we could expand in future years to go towards post-secondary, but right now we’re really focused on solidifying our elementary and our secondary panels,” Philbin said.
“We’re in our first year of existence as a high school so it takes time to grow, but I’m confident that the programs and services that we offer will attract more students.”
The hallway that connects École des Trois-Soleils' elementary school to high school is lined with posters and study spaces for students. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
It’s wonderful to see the initiative the Francophone School Board has taken. It would be fantastic to see an Inuktitut Immersion School Board started and follow a similar path, starting with elementary education and progressing from there. Hint Hint NTI or other language groups in town could take note—this is a great example of how a community group can come together to create a school, rather than relying solely on the government.
All good things but I believe this school is non-inclusive. Unless there has been a change, when I wanted to enrol my kids, I have to prove either me or my partner is francophone or has french ancestry. And only the creme de la creme families can enter without this requirement. Because of this, that is why there are only 94 kids in such a big school while there are approx 300 kids in EACH of the elementary, middle and high school in Iqaluit.
The CSFN don’t make the rules, the GN make them, and they are the same for everybody. I bet the school will be more than happy to have more kids… The rule is simple : you need a least one parent who went to French school to get in, crème de la crème or not! I repeat, it’s a GN rule and they enforce it. I believe it was different before 2016, but I’m not sure. Thankfully, there is the French immersion program in other schools in town for those who want to learn the language.
I don’t believe that enrolment requirements to the French school ar “a GN rule’; the funding comes from federal sources tied ti Francophone language protection……
This has always been a ‘non-inclusive’ school; they don’t offer French immersion, which could increase their class sizes, which would be better for everyone involved; I doubt that the secondary school will ever be ‘full’.
Admission criteria for French language schools come from the Canadian Constitution – section 23 of the charter.
There’s a reason why a child needs a francophone parent to enroll – without the language being spoken at home, a kid wouldn’t be fluent enough to keep up. It would drag the other students down if too many kids spoke weak French. That’s what French immersion is for. A French school shouldn’t be pressured into becoming French immersion.
So if a French family wanted to enroll their child in an English school, the school could turn them away because it would drag the other students down?
Or how about if an immigrant family with no knowledge of English, or French for that matter, wants to enroll their child in school. The school that teaches the curriculum in English can just say no? Every school I’ve went to has had to make provisions to assist the student until they are up to speed, even if the parents are never able to learn the language. Maybe the French school can take money from their fancy new gym budgets or similar budgets to do what other schools in Canada are required to do.
In much of Canada, there is a dominant language and a minority, then others. Minorities get special treatment. Who is the minority here? Francophones have called dibs. Are there any others who would like that label?
In this case, the immigrant pick the language he want to learn. English or French, nobody can refuse him.
Well, they wouldn’t be allowed to choose l’école lesTrois Soleils. Right?
Wrong! I know parents who don’t speak a lick of french and their kids went to this school. And these kids went on to french stream universities so they know the language well enough to do this without having a parent (s) who speak french.
Since we’re trading anecdotes, my kid was not eligible even though we both (parents) speak French. I wasn’t able to do French immersion until middle and high school and my spouse stopped in grade 4 after moving to a new school district.
I use French at work as needed, I can read and speak the language, one of my parents’ first language was French, but that was not enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is the way that it is most places for publicly funded French immersion. It is the same, but in reverse, if you want English language education in Quebec.
There are no options for children of non-francophone parents to access any French training beyond the 15 minutes every other day offered in the English schools.
To be honest, all the schools in Iqaluit should be run in Inuktitut, except for one anglophone and one francophone school for the minorities. English and French should be minority languages, but anglophones always make it sound like Inuktitut and French should be the minority languages, and as if it’s very normal that English became the dominant language. This is not right. I understand that it’s not currently possible because of the lack of teachers and resources, but we should stop thinking about the current situation as what it is supposed to be. Children whose first language is neither English or French should have to do their schooling in Inuktitut. That’s how you go about keeping a language.
And where will you go and what will you do with inuktituit as your primary language. The real world has no practical use for it. Not exactly the working language for business
For talking about Qallunaat while sound Qallunaat.
Amen to that.
True story.
Come on nunavut government and Nunavut tungavit where’s the Inuktitut school thought nunavut was for inuit by inuit again failing inuit set up to fail sadly unfortunately
The expansion of this school in Iqaluit is just sad.
I do not see where the costs are justified.
Nice for the entitled Francophones of Iqaluit to enroll their 94 kids in a big expensive school while the Igloolik school remains 30 years over its lifespan and has 58 critical issues. Only 94 kids, that’s essentially 3 classrooms in other schools. They built an entire 24,000 square foot addition because they have 12 high school kids.
I know there are language rights protections in Canada. But If I was one of these people, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
It’s neither their fault nor their doing that the Igloolik school is in the condition it is.
But it is their fault that they moved to place with a small French population and then demanded that tens of millions of dollars be spent to build a 38,000 square foot fully staffed and administered school for their 94 children at a cost to taxpayers. The Government of Nunavut put money into this school that they could’ve put elsewhere if not for the entitlement.
Wonder how many students in Grise fiord? Resolute? Lake Harbour? Do they need schools too?
The schools in Grise Fiord, Resolute, and Kimmirut combined are smaller than the French school in Iqaluit.
To clarify, I mean smaller in physical size. Total enrollment is more than double.
Typical misunderstanding of the demographic reality of Iqaluit. There are lots of Francophones who didn’t ‘move’ here. They were born and bred here. They are from here and are of here.
Get the ‘transient’ mindset out of your head, at least for Iqaluit, and understand that that there are deep rooted diverse language communities who know no other home than Iqaluit. This is only going to increase.
I’d argue that the biggest ‘transient’ population in Iqaluit are all of those who’ve been pushed on from their home communities in Nunavut.
Most of the transient people are from other communities? I just spit my coffee I laughed so hard! Have you taken a good, hard look around Iqaluit lately?!
I have. You are no doubt referring to the increase of obvious visible Allophones. That is not what I was referring to. We have a large population of born and bred Francophones, or those who weren’t born here but have been here for 30 years and consider Iqaluit home. We have an equally large, or larger, population of non-Francophones who don’t have any home anywhere else and consider Nuanvut home – they are not ‘transients’.
I would also argue that there are far more who’ve been pushed on from their Nunavut communities than there are of visible minorities, they are just less visible. Of course, I could be wrong, we won’t know until the next census.
Do those non-transient francophones you’re talking about speak English too?
Oh, absolutely, overwhelmingly yes. Doesn’t matter for the purpose of exercising constitutional rights though.
It does matter when discussing whether or not using those constitutional rights to force taxpayers to spend tens of millions of dollars plus millions annually for O&M to have a K-12 school for 94 students is a moral and ethical decision. There are many things people can do that they are constitutionally allowed to do, but are immoral.
You mean, for example, race based affirmative action like article 23? Constitutional, but clearly racist and immoral if anything is.
Let’s tackle that and get rid of it, shall we?
Or, let’s agree that morality doesn’t enter it when we discuss constitutionally protected rights.
It is nice for the entitled people of Nunavut to get two billion dollars per year from Canadian taxpayers. Only 37 000 persons… Are they all sleeping well? (I do not like the incipit here; it’s just cheap sarcasm… Sorry!) I think your comment missed a point. This school is made for the next 50 years, at least. It is going to fill up over time. You don’t build expansion every five years right? Besides, it gave back space at the IHS. The addition is for a gym more than a high school, gym that was in the original plan in 2001 but somehow forgotten. This gym is already used by the community for soccer, hockey tournaments, inuit games, etc. The Francophones fought for 20 years to get it. It did not happen last week. But we all agree on one thing, the good people of Igloolik need a new school ASAP, and they should fight for it right now!
No, they are not sleeping well because many of them are living 10 people to a 2-bedroom unit.
Don’t beat on the Francophones for the failures of Inuit.
This is the best comment in the string of comments. “Don’t beat on the Francophones for the failures of Inuit.”
This is just proof that it can be done. It’s time for Inuit to stand and demand it, find a way to make it work. Don’t wait for the Federal or Territorial Government to take the lead. Force them to take the lead. I do believe there was a big court deal that forced the Feds and GN to take account. If the French can do it so can the Inuit.
Just remember, don’t settle a Billion dollar law suit for $250 million. That’s why you have no credibility.
Exercise of constitutionally protected rights now qualifies as entitlement?
I hope that you say the same thing with a straight face to all of Inuit/First Nations/Metis exercising their ‘entitlement’ on a daily basis.
Of course Constitutionally protected rights are entitlements that we all enjoy as Canadians. If we were not entitled to benefit from them, what would be the point of putting them in the Constitution?? Inuit and other indigenous peoples also benefit from aboriginal treaty rights, which are rights and entitlements that are protected in the Constitution. Those Constitutionally protected rights and entitlements led to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and the creation of Nunavut.
So, Constitutionally protected entitlements/rights benefit many Canadians in many important ways, and that’s a good thing. Isn’t it??????
Colonization almost complete
Yes, the Inuit have done a fine job of completely replacing and erasing the memory of the original inhabitants that they replaced.
They left
Yes, it is. You and I are in agreement. I was responding to Holy Mackeral who seems to think that exercising rights is an ‘entitlement’.
I, of course, do not support this opinion.
I think you’re the one who doesn’t understand the meaning of those words. Maybe you should look up the meaning of “entitlement” or “entitled” before you say that I “seem to think that exercising rights is an entitlement”. Because that’s exactly what it is.
There is no qualifying French language test for parents. I’m personally aware of a number of situations where the francophone parent (or grandparent!) doesn’t even reside with the otherwise anglophone child and yet they are still admitted to this school.
You don’t need to reside with a francophone; you need one parent who went to a French school (or a brother/sister). You are right; there is no French test, nor should there be one. And you don’t kick out kids when parents divorce. It’s probably a very small percentage of these kids who don’t have any family members to help them with French, even away from the territory, but that doesn’t change a thing; they could get a French education if they want.
I think we all know that these 94 students all speak English as well and could just as easily attend the other Iqaluit schools without costing millions of dollars.
Relax, it’s not your money anyway
Tax money is not my money? Where do you think it comes from? Who do you think it belongs to?
Okay, I’ll say something no one will like. There is a tone-deafness within Iqaluit’s Franophone community, and it makes a lot of things that are not necessarily wrong, or are actually great for the community feel really off-putting.
The gym is great, and the fact that the French school exists and thrives is great and has nothing to do with the crappy, almost non-existent Inuktitut language education. But it stillfeels off-putting. I am sorry for feeling that way, but I can’t be the only one.
There is also a superiority complex within this community, there has been Inuit teachers in the past at this school but the other staff made no effort in trying to include them within the workplace.. didn’t they also have a non-Inuk demonstrating in cutting a seal? Last I checked Iqaluit has hunters who can do this and who teaches kids too.
They are “transplants” as people say, move here to make it like the cities they left.
It takes a specific ethnic background to know how butcher a seal, Really?
How many schools do Igloolik need for their students to frequently not attend and vandalize? They have 3 schools and an Arctic College! 3 schools… Some middle to larger-sized communities like Clyde River have just a single building and a community population of 1400 approx.
The fact that Nunavut co-funded this expansion is a smack in the face to Inuit. It is time for the government to take a look at the languages act and make Inuktitut and Inuinaqtun the majority languages in this territory, English and French to follow. A French immersion school shouldn’t be receiving funds from the territorial government for such a grand construction project. We should be funding an Inuktitut immersion school.
This is shameful and wrong.
You should have gotten the federal government and the provinces to amend the Constitution and then maybe you would have gotten your way. You people just don’t get it! It’s a constitutional right. It’s not some discretionary policy option that the government can choose to do or not to do. Some people will just never figure that out…..
Your argument is that it is their right, therefore nobody should be able to disagree. Rights are conferred on people, they are not inherently ethical or moral. Some time ago, women did not have the right to vote. I guess we should’ve told anybody that disagreed that they just didn’t get it.
No, those are your words, not mine.
You can disagree all that you wish, that is at it should be. However, until such time as change is made, it is important to respect minority rights. No matter how much some may disagree, that is what this is about, the protected rights of a minority group.
It is the way of the country and what the Inuit elders agreed to when the asked for a territory. The only way to change it is to crack open the constitution – that isn’t going to happen.
You could make a good argument that this oversight, together with consensus government and article 23 are the greatest failures of the fathers of Nunavut.
No, I quite understand you and the legal meaning of an entitlement. However, in the comments above it is clear that entitled is being used in the sense of ‘entitled’ as in ‘these Francophones need to check their privilege.” I highlighted that if one took that approach then the exact same argument applies to Indigenous.
Clearly, we all excercise entitlements at various times.
From other communities? You sure about that?! Take a good, hard look around you!
The 2 official languages of Canada are French and English, nothing else, Nunavut is in Canada. Get use to it Iqaluit, your just not that special.
Okay but, Inuktitut is an official language in Nunavut so… without taking anything away from the French, it would be nice t see an Inuktitut school also, granted, who would staff it? Yes, back to that again.
This is a very reasonable comment, and it would do nothing to trample on the protected language rights of other linguistic minorities and is a win-win for everyone.
You are absolutely right though – who would staff it?
french is a consitutionally enshinred 2nd language of canada. inukitut is not. the feds supply funding for all sorts of projects with GN matching funding. like the port in iqaluit. are we saying that the french living in nunavut are not entitled to this funding? or that the GN should not have approved the matching dough? there are other people that live here not just inuk.