by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Late Thursday afternoon, the Ontario Liberal government announced it had opened the door to the continuation of both the Kemptville and Alfred University of Guelph campuses.
A provincial news release announced the government’s efforts to work with La Cité and Collège Boréal “to ensure that students in Eastern Ontario continue to have access to French-language programs.” The release said the two colleges have signed agreements in principle to provide the programs at the Alfred campus but have yet to work out the details. “Ontario is committed to maintaining French-language agricultural and food programs for the Francophone community in Ontario and the region,” the release said.
The release also noted that the provincial government is “open to community-based proposals to maintain programming at the Kemptville campus,” and is coordinating efforts to engage “community leaders, businesses, and institutions to find a path forward for the site.”
“As the Parliamentary Assistant to both the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs, I understand how important the Campus D’Alfred and Kemptville Campus are in both their local region and the sector at large,” Grant Crack stated in the release. In the same release, Madeleine Meilleur, minister responsible for Francophone affairs, credited Crack for his leadership on the issue.
“Moving forward, I will engage with local partners in the hopes of finding a community-focused solution for the Kemptville Campus,” Crack said. BF End of update
Original story published Wed. March 12, 2014
by MATT MCINTOSH
Faced with a budgetary deficit of $32.4 million over the next three years, the University of Guelph announced today it will close its Alfred and Kemptville campuses. Field crop research facilities at the two eastern Ontario campuses, however, will continue to operate.
There are no changes to research activities at the New Liskeard, Emo and Winchester research stations that the university runs on behalf of the province.
Alfred is the only facility in the province that provides agricultural academic programming in French.
A university press release published earlier today says the research projects and many of the academic programs offered at both satellite locations will be relocated to the university’s campuses in Guelph and Ridgetown.
The press release also says the university has suspended “intake to academic programs” at Alfred and Kemptville for this year’s fall semester, and that “delivery of academic programs at the two campuses will cease by the end of 2015.” However, students who are already registered will be able to finish their programs.
“The university is working with other Francophone institutions in the area as well as various Ontario government ministries to explore opportunities to offer similar programs for Ontario students who have applied for fall admission in eastern Ontario,” the release adds.
The future of the Kemptville Dairy Innovation and Education Centre, which was developed with public and private funding and has only been operational for a few years, is also uncertain. Chuck Cunningham, the university’s assistant vice-president of communications and public affairs, says the university “will work with donors to discuss options, one of which is to move to our new (dairy) facility in Elora.”
The closures will also eliminate over 112 full time positions – as well as “a number of part-time and casual workers,” he says. Some employees will be given the option of relocating to either Guelph or Ridgetown.
Cunningham says the decision to close Alfred and Kemptville was made for a number of reasons relating to enrolment, operational costs, and the “duplication of programs.”
Both Cunningham and the press release explain that, when compared to the university’s other campuses, the costs per full time student at Alfred and Kemptville are much higher. Second, despite “efforts to introduce new revenue-generating educational programs and attract new students,” the press release says, both Alfred and Kemptville have low levels of enrolment – 61 and 128 students respectively.
The press release also says teaching, research, operations, and maintenance at the campus in Kemptville costs the university around $4.6 million every year, while the Alfred campus runs somewhere around $2.3 million. Neither amount, it says, includes other “indirect costs,” such as animal care and student support services.
Cunningham says the amount of money needed to keep the two campuses running is problematic, specifically since some of the programs offered by the two colleges overlap with programs at Ridgetown and the main Guelph campus.
“The university assessed each satellite location and determined that the value of programs offered at Ridgetown was higher” than Alfred and Kemptville, says Cunningham. “There will be a reinvestment of things. We’re trying to consolidate and improve, not just cutting for cutting’s sake.”
Kemptville also offered a number of trade skill programs, which Cunningham says are not part of the university’s mandate.
All the changes coming to the Alfred and Kemptville schools coincide with significant program restructuring at the main Guelph campus, which Cunningham says is also intended to alleviate pressure on the budget.
Steve Clark, MPP for Leeds-Grenville, published a news release earlier today that accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of neglecting the critically important Alfred and Kemptville campuses. Instead of capitalizing on close ties with regional producers, he says, “the Premier has pulled the rug out from underneath eastern Ontario and turned her back on rural communities yet again.”
There had been local news reports about the decision to close the two campuses on Tuesday but Cunningham says the decision to make a formal announcement today had been planned for several weeks. “Senior directors at each college were notified recently, while staff and students were notified today,” he says.
Cunningham says the university and the government have been working together on a plan of action for some time, and that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, in particular, has been very supportive.
The University of Guelph first took charge of the Alfred and Kemptville campuses in 1997 at the request of the provincial government. However, Cunningham says the province still owns the land and will be responsible for deciding whether to sell or repurpose the property.
Mark Cripps, an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food spokesman, referred a Better Farming reporter to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for comment on the programming cuts. “This is their file; they’re the ones who are commenting on this.”
However, he notes that the decision won’t affect an agreement the ministry and the Ministry of Rural Affairs has with the university concerning the operation of the provincially-owned campuses and research stations. The current agreement is in effect until 2018. According to the partnership’s website, the province currently contributes $76.1 million annually to the partnership.
Neither are the cuts related to a review of the province’s research infrastructure that has been underway over the past several months, he says.
“Our commitment is to continue and maybe even increase funding for research,” Cripps says, pointing to an increasing focus on public/private funding models to develop research facilities such as one supporting the development of the Livestock Research Innovation Centre at Elora. The Livestock Research Innovation Corporation, a group made up of livestock commodity organizations, has pledged some funding for the $25 million facility that is scheduled to be completed this year. Dairy Farmers of Ontario has contributed $1 million to the project.
“It can’t always be about government,” providing the funding if a project is to be considered a partnership, Cripps says. In the Elora development’s case, he notes, government is still footing the majority of the project’s costs. “Is that a partnership?”
He adds there is currently discussion underway to build new infrastructure near Elora to replace aging facilities that are closer to Guelph’s main campus and in increasingly urbanized areas.
UPDATE Wed. March 12 2014 8:11 p.m.: Cripps says the two eastern Ontario campus properties are owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario. He says he's not sure if the Institute has a plan beyond 2015. End of update BF
-- with files from Better Farming staff
Comments
Ms. Wynne wants too expand Ag and food processing sector and now we have people wanting too cut funding or close Ag colleges .Rather than xxx$ spent on turbines,cancelled gas plants,solar maybe we could put it into these Ag schools . Ag in Eastern Ontario is much different than at Guelph or Ridgetown. KG kimball
Lets see if I got this right. Ahhhhhh the Liberals want it both ways.
Ms Wynne wants agriculture to lead the way by doubling productivity in the next few years, however she doesn't want to equip agriculture with the education and other assorted tools to accomplish that goal. As for the wasted dollars on the wind solar fiasco, using valuable resources to build access roads and power lines to nowhere for power we absolutely don't need, perhaps Ms Wynne could start by listening to a lecture given by the Ontario engineers society or reading the auditor generals report.
The Liberals must figure that if you educate the people they will leave Ontario for greener pastures , but if you close the agri. schools down they will have no option but to stay in Ontario and shovel the S$$t they are spreading.
The closing of these teaching facilities is not good to say the least .
What is even more conserning is the fact that not one of our three general farm organizations has commented at all on these closures .
With today's farm policies resulting in generational theft, what young person in their right mind would pursue an education in agriculture. Even if they did, an MBA would be a better choice. Raube Beuerman
Here Eastern Ontario we know it won't be an MBA that get us our farms its the rigs and the oilsands. That's where welding and diesel mechanic courses shone. We not only gained the skills to run a farm but also the skills to get it. Like most from Western Ontario Guelph could never look beyond its own tiny zone
It took a whole two days before some one decided to throw out the old east vs west crap . It is what it is so get over it . Sort of like Toronto deciding and telling rural Ont what is good for it . I don't for a minute believe that many in Guelph who work for agriculture fully understand what agriculture is and needs .
I just recently read where a certain GFO is telling people to go north to farm . I did not see any one from the east comment on that ! It could even be seen as that organization turning it's back on it's own policy of protecttion of prime farmland in Ontario .
Alfred Campus had only 58 students??? That's a pretty small number to have a separate facility for in these times.
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