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Part of French language education

Official Languages in Education Programs

Learn how the Government of Canada, through OLEP, contributes funding to early childhood to post-secondary French education in Alberta.

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Official Languages in Education Programs

Alberta works to support French minority-language education and second-language programs through OLEP funding.

Obtaining federal OLEP funding

The federal government funds official languages in education through regular annual or specific project funding.

Regular annual funding

Step 1. Federal, provincial, and territorial governments negotiate a single base agreement, called a protocol

The Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction sets out how the governments work together and shows how the federal government gives money to all provinces and territories.

Governments renegotiate the protocol every 4 or 5 years to reflect changing priorities.

It takes an average of 2 years to negotiate each new protocol.

Step 2. The federal government negotiates with each province and territory individually to create unique agreements

The Alberta government and the federal government negotiate the Canada-Alberta Agreement for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction to:

  • expand on important objectives in the Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction
  • identify strategies and initiatives specific to Alberta
  • create a detailed action plan to show how Alberta will distribute federal funding

It takes an average of 6 to 12 months to negotiate these agreements.

Specific projects or goals are funded through a separate application process (refer to the Additional OLEP funding page for more information).

Step 3. Provinces and territories get federal funding

Each province and territory gets federal funding to give to funding recipients according to its action plan. The federal government usually gives this funding in 2 parts each year.

Step 4. Funding recipients report back to government

The Alberta government collects reports during the protocol term from each funding recipient, creates a combined report, and submits it to the federal government.

We repeat this process at the end of the protocol term to create a more detailed report showing how funding helped recipients achieve their goals.

Legislation and policies

The following legislation, policies and resources guide the delivery of French minority (francophone) education and French second-language instruction (includes French as a Second Language courses and French immersion programs) in Alberta:

Learn more about French language education in Alberta.

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Contact

Connect with the Alberta Official Languages in Education Programs (OLEP) office:

Hours: 8:15 am to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
Phone: 780-427-2940
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Email: [email protected]

Related

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