Evangeline Education Centre gets funding to rebuild, expand services

ABRAM VILLAGE – The Government of Canada is committed to investing in education, beginning in preschool, to help equip youth for their future and promotes the vitality of official language minority communities. Bobby Morrissey, MP (Egmont), announced more than $12.9 million in funding over five years (from 2023–24 to 2027–28) for the reconstruction and modernization of the Evangeline Education Centre. Morrissey made this announcement on behalf of Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages. He was accompanied by Natalie Jameson, PEI Minister of Education and Early Years. The provincial government is providing more than $40 million over five years (from 2023–24 to 2027-2028).

This infrastructure project has three components: preschool, school and community. It will allow the Evangeline Education Centre to rebuild and modernize its school space after the devastating effects of Hurricane Fiona, which struck the island in September 2022. To help provide comprehensive services to the regional Acadian and Francophone community, this funding will also allow:

• redistribution and expansion of community spaces;
• reconstruction and expansion of the Early Years Centre to increase the number of spaces;
• expansion of school spaces to better accommodate classrooms (K-12) and promote learning;
• rebuilding and renovation of community and shared spaces; and
• creation of a new centre of excellence in arts and culture. This centre will promote the development of local arts and culture as well as the training, creation and distribution of artistic and French cultural products in the Evangeline region.

The project is funded under the Canada-Prince Edward Island Agreement on Minority Language Education and Second Language Instruction from 2020-2021 to 2022-2023.