Eastern Ontario ag colleges announcement unclear says UCFO spokesman

Thursday, January 29, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

The provincial government’s plans to work with local municipalities on options for agricultural education in eastern Ontario now that the University of Guelph is pulling out of its Kemptville and Alfred campuses later this year are unclear, say spokespeople involved in saving the colleges.

On Friday, the Ontario government announced in a press release a number of steps it’s taking to work with local municipalities on options “for a sustainable path forward for agricultural education in eastern Ontario.”

The release on next steps was issued after the provincial government accepted reports on the colleges’ future from two facilitators – Lyle Vanclief for Kemptville and Marc Godbout for Alfred – in December 2014. The Ontario government appointed the facilitators.

Simon Durand, general manager of the Francophone farming group, L’Union des cultivateurs franco-ontariens, says one of the sections in Friday’s government release mentions providing assistance to local municipalities to develop a strategic approach to long-term ownership of the Alfred campus. But Durand says the local community and local mayors have not received a formal update “with regards to Alfred” from the provincial government.

“I just don’t know what they expect from the local community,” he says, adding the section in the press release on assisting local municipalities develop a strategic approach for long-term ownership of Alfred was not in the facilitator’s report. “For me, this is brand new information from today.”

Since Godbout filed his report on Oct. 31, 2014 “we have had only very limited communications” with the government, Durand says.

For Kemptville, the government plans to maintain the facility for public use as it enters into negotiations with North Grenville to transfer the property to the municipality, the release says.

Marty Derks, chair of the Kemptville College Renewal Task Force, says transferring the property to North Grenville “is what we were working towards.”

He says he considers the government announcement to pursue this option “great news.”

On its website, North Grenville says in a notice it will work with the province on the maintenance and operational responsibilities for Kemptville currently being handled by the University of Guelph. The vision is to transform the college into a multi-tenant campus offering research, education, training and economic development opportunities to various strategic, collaborative partners. There may also be opportunities to deliver regional and provincial health and wellness services.

Brian Carré, chief administrative officer for North Grenville, says that was in their pitch to the province. The municipality said if no one was stepping up to try and save the campus, it would. The municipality would create a non-profit corporation along with a board of directors made up of agricultural and academic representatives and set up the multi-institutional campus.

“Our pitch is probably in (the government’s) mind but they may have other opportunities that they may want to share with us so we have to have those discussions,” he says, adding they don’t know when talks with the government are supposed to happen.

Sudbury’s Collége Boréal and La Cité, an applied arts and technology college in Ottawa, are poised to take over the Alfred Campus from the University of Guelph, but Durand says it is his understanding that’s supposed to just be a short-term arrangement. After the 2015/16 school year “I’m not sure who’s going to do what,” he says.

The government’s release says Ontario will ensure students currently enrolled at the Alfred Campus finish their studies and there will be an intake of new students for the 2015/16 school year.

There’s no new information on the “governance structure of the new school in the press release of the ministry,” Durand says, adding it is somewhat good news there will be student enrollment for the 2015/16 school year. “We are under the impression that the government bought some time so it can reassess the situation and develop some different scenarios for the long term.”

The government also plans to:

• Work to ensure both the Kemptville and Alfred campuses remain positive economic assets for the communities they serve.
• Work with North Grenville to provide resources and support and establish a working group to explore new models of delivering agricultural learning, training and instruction at Kemptville.

 Carré says they’re 100 per cent in support of the exploration of new models to deliver agricultural instruction at Kemptville. “But what specifically that means, we haven’t discussed that yet.”

Durand says for Alfred, the community would like to see long-term commitment and sustainability for the college, Ontario’s only Francophone college offering training for agricultural students. In Godbout’s report “it was quite clear that an increase in student enrollment and an increase in the number of courses being offered were critical conditions to ensure the long-term survival of Alfred,” he says.

But Friday’s announcement “doesn’t seem to go in that direction,” he notes.

The University of Guelph announced in March 2014 it was closing the two campuses this year due to declining and low enrollment, to save more than $6.8 million in costs, and because the academic and research programs did poorly in reviews by the university. Also, many of the campuses’ programs are offered elsewhere at the university.

The university has managed the research and education programs and related facilities of Ridgetown (which isn’t being closed), Alfred and Kemptville since 1997 under a partnership agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. BF