The much anticipated visit from Henry Reiser, President of the College of New Caledonia (CNC), to discuss the removal of family programs took place at the Lakes District campus on Dec. 2, 2015.
Community members were eager to finally address concerns in the first community consultation since CNC discontinued family programs at the local campus and took steps to centralize operations in Prince George.
Mayor Luke Strimbold referred to the size of the crowd in his opening statement, “The turnout is reflective of our concern for some of the direction that the college is taking.”
Reiser was accompanied by four executives and board members from Prince George. The panel got off to a rough start when they breached protocol by incorrectly acknowledging First Nations territories, an issue Burns Lake Band member Albert Gerow addressed in a passionate statement, later receiving an apology from the director of Aboriginal education at CNC.
There were numerous tense moments during the meeting including when speaker Chantal Burt called out Reiser, asking him to look at her when she felt he was not paying attention while she made a moving statement about the impact that the family programs have had on the success of students and her family.
Over the two-hour meeting, the dominant issue continued to be the dismantling of the award winning and nationally recognized family programs hub at the Lakes District campus, due to the panel’s belief that ‘social programs’ were not relevant or related to “the core mandate of education.”
When asked if his definition of education had expanded at all in response to people’s stories and comments, Reiser responded, “Well, no… my vision is that we focus on our core business… I am fairly confident that those services will be provided by another agency as it is in most communities.”
At this point a number of participants walked out of the meeting.
Dr. George Magee felt the need to respond to Reiser’s claim that the programs could easily be provided by other agencies.
“I have practiced here for 47 years and I have seen organizations cycle through, we have never seen an organization that is as steady as the college and family services. We’ve always had ups and downs, and that will be in any of the communities that you say have other agencies doing these programs, they are not stable, those communities. This is the jewel of our community and probably all of the north, and you’re destroying it. I find it very difficult to watch this happen.”
Scott Zayac, former local Regional Director - now ‘regional principal’ under the restructured model, was able to confirm that the family program contracts are worth between $1.7 and $2 million, and that $240,000 of that money goes to Prince George.
One community member commented, “To me it’s cutting off your nose to spite your face; you’re making money from these programs.”
The response from the panel was, “The biggest rationale is that we’re not in the business of social services.”
Southside resident Mike Robertson greeted the panel, “Your reputation has preceded you,” provoking laughter from the crowd.
Robertson continued, “Don’t cut a cash cow that feeds you guys, you’re talking budget cuts in Burns Lake but you’re bringing in new executives to help you with your cutting and slashing - that’s not a good investment, invest in the people that will make it happen here.”
John Barth, Arts Council Treasurer also commented, “A big part of what’s an issue here is that this community defines education in a very different way from how you define education. For many years I thought ‘what are these programs doing at the college?’, but the reason (they are there) is so that what you define as education can be successful for the people who live in this community.”
Gerow stood again to explain, “It’s the life skills courses that have dramatically turned First Nations people’s lives around and helped them to be successful students… The programs that you are cutting here are going to dramatically reduce the success rate. One shoe does not fit every model, you’re going to have an empty campus here, or one that no longer exists.”
Birgit Wilson, a family program support worker at the college described how her work helps families in the community and also supports student success at the college, “I help students go from our end of the building to this end, and they are successful because they don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, or if the school calls and they need help with their kid, or they need a call from income assistance and it takes four hours on hold, they can call me and I can run down there and say ‘they’re on the phone.’”
Wanda Giesbrecht, Head Teacher at Ashurst Daycare, also felt that the panel did not appreciate the barriers that some students in the Lakes District face.
“A student who has had to walk all the way down for blocks in the freezing cold wheeling her children in a stroller, but she got here because she knew that when she got here she had support, and she would get a ride home and she would have some food… she’s going to be given help through that day to finish her class.”
One ministry of children and family development (MCFD) child protection worker added, “It’s not fair to make the assumptions that you guys are making coming from a bigger center [Prince George] and putting that on our community. I welcome you to come to our office at MCFD on April 1 and hear our stories about removing children because we lost those programs.”
A final comment from a community member brought an end to the contentious session. “To me this seems like a slow death of our institution here in Burns Lake. How is Burns Lake going to attract enough students into this building now?”
Reiser concluded the meeting stating, “Actually this has had a lot of impact on me, I’m going to give this more thought, actually thinking about solutions to this. Your passion for what is here I hear loud and clear, and we have to go back and think about how we’re going to respond.”