Based on how deep the cuts are in the March 26 provincial budget, Portage College may not rehire for the recently-vacated positions leading the school’ s culinary arts and trades divisions.
Based on how deep the cuts are in the March 26 provincial budget, Portage College may not rehire for the recently-vacated positions leading the school’ s culinary arts and trades divisions.
“The voluntary leaving of two individuals at the operations level gives us an opportunity to look at what’ s required for leadership in those initiatives,” said Trent Keough, the college’ s president.
The recent resignations of Paul Pelletier, food sciences dean, and Stuart Leitch, director of the faculty of trades, technology and continuing education, leftt holes at the top of two prominent Portage programs: - St. Paul’ s culinary arts program, which is well-known in the region, and the pipeline training and heavy equipment program in Boyle, where the college has pushing for over $50 million in provincial funding to build a closed-loop training pipeline.
Keough says that for the time being, culinary arts coordinator Debra Poulin will oversee the program’ s day-to-day operations in St. Paul, and Fatima Tarrabain, dean of education and cultural arts, will take on administrative responsibility. Vern Yackimec, dean of the faculty of trades and technology, will take over some of Leitch’ s responsibilities.
“None of the initiatives are in jeopardy, none of our programs are tied to the single presence of an individual, it’ s always kind of team based,” said Keough.
He said he would not discuss the events surrounding either resignation out of workplace privacy concerns.
Keough said that any serious cut to the college’ s operating budget will require some difficult decisions. He speculated that, depending on how much money is missing, there may be cuts to programs, cuts to services, or cuts to the rental space the college currently operates in Bonnyville.
“What we’ ve really been trying to do with our staff is to say that we have no control over the provincial budget,” Keough said. “First priority is always to maintain services to students and programs. If that proves not to be possible, then there’ s an entire way of looking at that particular process...it’ s low-enrolment programs, programs with low employability...when you get to those very difficult decision-making moments, you have to look at those programs.”
The college owns its buildings in Lac La Biche, St. Paul, Cold Lake and Boyle and smaller facilities in a handful of other communities, but rents space in Bonnyville, where it offers electrician apprenticeship and continuing education courses. Keough said they may have to take a second look at this space if budget cuts require.
“One of the things that we’ ve done in the past is amalgamation of services. Several years ago, we closed the Vegerville campus, where we were renting...two years ago, we actually reduced our footprint in Bonnyville because of the lack of owned space down to a marginal amount of space. If we’ re actually cut again, we would be forced to look at rental spaces such as in Bonnyville.”
