And just like that, it’s March and the end of the fiscal year is upon us! CPF Branch and National office staff are busy gathering outstanding invoices and receipts, reconciling all transactions, closing out accounts receivable and payable. Our thanks to all those putting in extra hours to ensure a smooth audit come spring!

The Canadian Parents for French National Board has a vision for a strong, equitable and resilient Network, focused on building shared leadership, supporting engaged membership and volunteers, and delivering relevant, quality programming to parents and youth learning and using French.

Update on the Status of Bill C-13, Act to amend the Official Languages Act:
The Bill is at consideration in committee (Standing Committee on Official Languages) in the House of Commons. There have so far been 51 meetings held conducting a clause-by-clause study of the Bill. It has not reached report stage nor third reading. The Senate has not begun its second reading. CPF National has shared its concerns with key government stakeholders of the ongoing and discouraging delays.
 
Update on the next Action Plan for Official Languages:
The current Action Plan expires on March 31^st 2023. It appears the new 2023-2026 Action Plan is scheduled to be announced in mid-April, although CPF National has been told delays may be inevitable. CPF National will provide updates to CPF Branches as further information is received.
 
O’Poésie - CPF French Poetry Contest 2023 – Winners Announced!

Over 280 students from across Canada participated in the 2023 CPF O'Poésie French poetry competition.  Participants came from almost every province and territory. Our winners come from British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec. Our judges were blown away by our young poets’ eloquence and creativity. 
  
All participants have been invited to participate in a virtual tour of Montreal's Plateau Mont-Royal with Jumpstreet Tours from the comfort of their home! Participants should reach out to infoqcnu@cpf.ca if they haven't received an email invitation.
 
Our sincere thanks to Megan Chartrand, CPF QCNU Coordinator, for leading this year’s contest, to all the volunteer judges for their help in making the winning selections and to the CPF Branches across the Network for promoting this youth initiative across Canada. 

Click here to read the names of this year’s winners.

CPF Network Virtual Advocacy Stakeholder Meetings – Spring 2023

This year’s advocacy meetings will focus on the importance of learning French in the Early Years and our advocacy brief publication.

Marcos Salaiza, CPF National Communications Manager, will be reaching out to CPF Network Leaders to extend meeting requests, as constituents, to their respective Member of Parliament. The virtual meetings will be scheduled to take place between April 1^st and June 15^th, usually for a 20-30 minute duration.

CPF advocacy teams of three will be created: these trios aim to represent a balance of CPF Branch & National, and volunteer & staff mix to meet with the stakeholders. CPF National will provide all participants with backgrounder notes and key questions to guide the meetings. Contact Marcos Salaiza, msalaiza@cpf.ca, with questions or for additional information.

The CPF National Board has scheduled its regular spring Board meeting to take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This allows for attendance at the CPF NS FSL Awareness Event scheduled on April 28^th, 2023. We thank CPF NS for this invitation!

The CPF National has also extended an invitation for a “Next Steps in Optimizing Collaboration” Meeting between the 4 CPF Branches located in Atlantic Canada to build on the initial steps undertaken last August in Edmonton, Alberta.

The one-day meeting on April 29, will bring together eight Branch Board Directors along with the CPF National Board to review key areas of performance including CPF activity tracking and reporting indicators, risk mitigation expectations for financial processes as well as further dialogue on resource sharing (human and financial) as it relates to coordinated advocacy efforts. This dialogue is taking place in Spring to ensure a clear understanding of expectations for Branches going forward.
 

CPF Concours d’art oratoire – National Finals – June 2023
 

 
While many CPF Branches have returned to in person competitions for this year’s Concours d’art oratoire events, CPF National is continuing with a virtual ‘Video Edition’ for the National Finals in 2023.
 
Concours winners at the Branch level will be required to submit a video to CPF National of the same speech presented during the competition to be considered for the National prizes. All videos must be received by May 26^th, 2023, as judging takes place June 1^st-10^th, 2023.

We thank all CPF Branches for their help in ensuring this key piece of information is clearly communicated to all participants interested in the National level competition. Contact Marcos Salaiza, msalaiza@cpf.ca, with questions or for additional information.