After the provincial government spent nearly three years considering, scrapping, and then reconsidering building a French-language university in Ontario, it looks like the project is finally actually happening.

The federal and Ontario governments signed a new deal today to jointly back the long-awaited l’Université de l’Ontario français, which will be ready to accept students in September 2021.

L’Ontario et le gouvernement fédéral ont signé une entente de financement historique en vue de soutenir @universiteON, la première université de langue française gouvernée par et pour les francophones de l’Ontario. Renseignez-vous à https://t.co/PVNWr7M522 pic.twitter.com/cb8F439bN7

— Ministère des Collèges et Universités (@EtudesFormatiON) January 22, 2020

Each legislative body will contribute $63 million total over eight years to fund the institution, which will be located in Toronto. The deal is based on a more vague agreement the two levels of government came to back in the fall.

Though the province has two French-language colleges —  Collège Boréal La Cité — as well as a number of universities that offer programs that are bilingual or fully in French, the institution will be the first of its kind in Ontario, both completely for and governed by Francophones.

It already named 30 associate professors and a governance council, and is actively seeking more staff to help build the university.

Congrats to the govt of @Canada & @ONgov for their funding agreement for the Université de l’Ontario français. Intergovernmental collaboration on infrastructure, education & skills development is critical to Canada's long-term economic competitiveness. https://t.co/KKgXtba7ZM

— Toronto Region Board of Trade (@TorontoRBOT) January 22, 2020

The online reaction to the news has been mixed but unfortunately mostly negative, with responses ranging from "useless" and "waste of money" to simply "why?"