anse-au-sable

École de L’Anse-au-sable

Kelowna

In September 1998, l’École de l’Anse-au-sable opened with 45 students enrolled. Today, that enrolment has increased to 190 students. During its first year, the school offered kindergarten to grade 7 education in three multi-grade classes. Starting in 1999, the school added additional grade levels. In September 2007, that growth was completed, with the addition of grade 12 at the school.

The CSF and the Fédération des parents francophones’ claim before the Supreme Court of British Columbia:

Obtain a new kindergarten to grade 12 school in Kelowna East on a site large enough to allow for future enrolment growth.

Obtain a kindergarten to grade 6 school in Kelowna West on a site large enough to allow for future enrolment growth.

Court’s decision:

Francophone parents in Kelowna (at least those parents who reside east of Okanagan Lake) have the right to a homogeneous school with elementary facilities that are substantively equivalent to those of the majority. According to the judge, the current facilities meet these needs.

Francophone parents in Kelowna have the right to have their children educated in French at the secondary level and a right to secondary school facilities that are “proportionate” to those of the majority. According to the judge, the current facilities meet these needs.

Francophone parents residing in Kelowna, west of Okanagan Lake have the right to have their children educated in French at the elementary level with access to the core facilities necessary to offer elementary education.

The implementation of section 23 of the Charter in Kelowna will be supported by the order requiring the provincial government to establish a separate long-term funding envelope for the CSF’s capital projects, by the order requiring the provincial government to help the CSF acquire sites to meet the CSF’s needs, and by the order requiring the provincial government to fund the CSF’s leases where a program is offered in leased space. The implementation of section 23 in Kelowna may also be aided by the order for damages regarding the decade-long freeze of funding for the CSF’s transportation budget.

The CSF and the Fédération des parents francophones will ask, as regards Kelowna, that the Court of Appeal remedy the errors of law made by Justice Russell, pronounce the correct interpretation of the law, and set aside the trial judge’s conclusions.

Current project

A search for sites is currently underway.