If the federal government had known of the crisis at Laurentian University, they would have stepped in. This was the bombshell message dropped at the Official Languages Community by Minister Melanie Joly – Minister of FedNor and Official Languages. Under questioning from Charlie Angus, the Minster claimed had she known that Laurentian was in trouble, she would have contacted the province and stepped in to find a solution. Angus is asking the question – why wasn’t she told?
“The Laurentian crisis has been an economic, cultural and educational catastrophe for Northern Ontario. It boggles the mind that Minister Joly was kept in the dark. Why?”
Laurentian President Robert Haché testified that he had met several times with the federal and provincial government to discuss the University’s financial crisis. The Lobbying Registry shows that those meetings were with Sudbury area MP’s Paul Lefebvre and Marc Serré. Why didn’t they pass the information up to the Minister?
“It is hard to imagine that University president Haché would have withheld the drastic nature of the choice he was facing from the local MPs. If that is the case, why didn’t they bring in the Minister to help find a solution? The people of the north deserve answers about how this catastrophe was allowed to happen.”
At committee, Joly stated she was very concerned and surprised by the announcement that Laurentian had gone into bankruptcy protection.