VANCOUVER — The B.C. Supreme Court has ordered the provincial government to pass a law within six months providing the Francophone School Board with powers to expropriate private property to build new French-language schools.

The court found that, unlike other school boards in B.C., the Francophone School Board is the only one without expropriation powers despite it having the “greatest need” for new schools.

The board says in a statement that the ruling posted this week is a “partial victory,” recognizing its challenges compared to other school boards, and it acknowledges that Vancouver does not provide “equivalent education” in French.

Board president Marie-Pierre Lavoie says the court ruling gives the board “access to better tools to support its hard work in finding sites and building schools.”

But the board statement says it’s “disappointed” with several of the court’s findings, including its refusal to transfer properties in Vancouver and Whistler, as well as the decision to give the province time to remedy Charter violations rather than recognize “the urgent need for quality French-language schools.”

Lavoie says the court gave the provincial government “latitude to remain reactionary” instead of ordering it to help the board overcome challenges identifying sites and building schools.

She says in the board’s statement that the judgment is complex and the board will “need time to analyze its impacts.”

The ruling says the case is the latest in a series of “prolonged and difficult lawsuits” about the Charter’s guarantee of minority language education rights since it was enacted in 1982.

It says courts in 2016 and 2020 determined that “certain communities” in B.C. such as Whistler are entitled to offer francophone schooling but “the necessary schools are still not in existence.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press