The Ford government’s new proposal for assistance from Ottawa to revive a proposed French-language university it cancelled last year was communicated to its federal counterparts in an abrupt phone call earlier this week without any accompanying paperwork, a Liberal source close to the file told iPolitics.

The source also accused the Ford government of only putting forward the offer to try to help the federal Conservatives on the campaign trail in the fall, noting the cancellation of the school project, as well as their axing of the province’s commissioner for French-language services, was strongly opposed by French-speaking voters in Ontario and even Quebec.

“They are trying to get rid of a problem. This a problem for the (federal) Tories,” they told iPolitics.

After “productive” discussions in July and earlier this month, officials from Ontario Francophone Affairs Minister Caroline Mulroney’s office put forward the new offer for $63 million in funding from the federal government in a single phone call on Tuesday, according to the Liberal source. The estimated price tag for the project now stands at $126 million.

READ MORE: Ford rejects calls to reverse cuts to French-language services

The minister’s office publicly confirmed that number to the Canadian Press in a story published later that day.

When federal officials asked when they could receive the official funding request in writing, they were told by Mulroney’s office the proposal would only be communicated by the phone, the source said, suggesting the minister hadn’t even received approval from the Ontario Treasury Board to make the offer.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Minister Mulroney said the provincial government has been “engaged in a constructive dialogue” with their counterparts in Ottawa on the “scope of the potential contribution of the federal government” to fund the new school, named the Université de l’Ontario français.

“The Ontario government is currently negotiating in good faith with the federal government, which is also seeking an agreement on this important project,” Matthew Conway said in a statement, adding the province has always maintained that it’s “committed to moving forward with this very important university … when Ontario will be in a fiscal position to do so with the necessary viable funding.”

The former Ontario Liberal government in 2017 approved plans for the province’s first French-only university, expected to be located in Toronto. The federal Liberal government committed $40 million for the then $83-million project, which the source says is similar to the 50/50 federal-provincial funding split in place for the Université de Saint-Boniface in Winnipeg.

However, the new Ford government cancelled the project late last year as part of efforts to balance Ontario’s budget, despite committing during the 2018 election campaign to build the school. Ford’s team also said in January they wouldn’t reverse the cancellation when the federal government offered to extend funding to a team working on the project, as the Canadian Press reported.

READ MORE: Scheer expresses concern to Ford, Mulroney over Franco-Ontarian cuts

When the decision was first made in November, federal Official Languages Minister Mélanie Joly wrote to Mulroney to express her “sincere disappointment in the cuts” to the school and commissioner’s office. She said she believed the cuts would have “severe consequences on the vitality of the Franco-Ontarian community and the Canadian Francophonie.”

As iPolitics reported, federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer even expressed his concern about the cuts in services for Franco-Ontarians to Premier Doug Ford and Mulroney, shortly after they were announced.

But Scheer said he didn’t ask the province to reverse them.

Jeremy Ghio, a spokesperson for Minister Joly, told iPolitics on Wednesday the two sides had “good discussions” on reviving the school project this summer, after eight “months of silence from the Ford government.”

He said in a statement that there is “a lot of good will” between Ontario and the federal government when it comes to the university, but added “we are still far from a concrete proposal from the province.

“We support the project and we want to move it forward, but we will do our homework diligently and we will not be rushed by last-minute interventions,” he said.

“One thing is clear: we have been at the negotiating table since the very beginning, we are with the Franco-Ontarians and we will continue to defend their linguistic rights.”

Ontario NDP MPP Guy Bourgouin, the party’s critic for francophone affairs, called on Ford to reverse “his callous cut and get shovels in the ground on the Francophone university now.”

“The Francophone university is a right, and a need of Franco-Ontarians. The people and industries who were counting on it deserve better than for Doug Ford to try to make them a political pawn, playing games with their education, and their constitutional rights,” he said in a statement.

“The Conservatives cancelled this university, and have now dragged their feet for months on the issue … Andrea Horwath and the NDP will keep fighting until the university is a reality.”

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*This story has been updated with comment from the Ontario NDP and to clarify the timing of the discussions between the province and federal government and the estimated price tag for the project.