By Cheryl Jahn

McLeod Lake takes CNC to task

Feb 5, 2025 | 4:11 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The College of New Caledonia is undergoing a revamp, in light of some changes that have transpired, particularly around limits to international enrolment introduced by the federal government. As part of that endeavour, the college has had to lay off three staff members at its Mackenzie campus. That has prompted the McLeod Lake Indian Band to fire off a letter to the college brass.

The letter reads: “It is troubling that CNC claims to have consulted with local nations regarding these cuts and the future of services in our area. In fact, no consultation took place with the McLeod Lake Indian Band.”

“There been some serious concerns that have arisen from the recent layoffs in the rural communities, particularly in Mackenzie,” says Rachael Weber, Education Director for the McLeod Lake Indian Band. “There has been a lack of consultation with four local First Nations. There’s been a lack of consultation with the community of Mackenzie. The issue isn’t just about economic hardship, so it’s about the principle of respect, inclusion and the need for a meaningful dialogue between institutions and the communities that they impact.”

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But the college maintains it did its due diligence.

“CNC started it last February, a process, and we called it a “regional renovation” and we went out to all the regional campuses twice, met with the community advisory and the Aboriginal Advisory Committees,” says Shelley Carter-Rose, the Vice President of Student Affairs. “We didn’t have full participation at some of the meetings, but we were out there twice and then we went back out again in the summer twice. We went out with a draft vision statement and a structure and a strategy.”

The Mackenzie campus is one of five rural campuses across northern B.C. with eight programs, including health care assistant certificate trades discovery bookkeeping and early childhood care. The college says the work began creating a new vision for those campuses just under a year ago.

“We did internal consultations as well as external consultations involving community advisory committees, Aboriginal advisory committees,” says Edward Benoit the Associate Vice President of Academics. “And from those engagement sessions, we gathered the feedback, we drafted a vision statement. We then took that vision statement back out to all of our communities where we have regional campuses to validate that vision statement.”

The letter from McLeod Lake goes on to read: “Moreover, we are gravely concerned about CNC’s apparent plan to shift major services away from rural communities like ours, with a focus on consolidating in Prince George. Reducing services and offering only basic programs, like adult upgrading and first aid will not meet the needs of our community.”

“Not everyone has the funds or the means to be able to go to Prince George,” says Weber. “They don’t have houses. Can they afford to buy a house? Well, they’re there. Do they have family that will support them? You know, it doesn’t always work for everyone. And we need to figure out a way to remove barriers rather than put barriers up.”

The College acknowledges there have been three layoffs, but two new positions have been added and maintains programming will be enhanced.

“We’re working towards having the right people doing the right jobs. The other thing I want to stress is we’ve not reduced services. In fact, we’re going to enhance services, but it’ll have to be on a hybrid model,” explains Carter-Rose. “So the regional campuses will have more access, more direction and more support and guidance from all the Student Affairs Service pieces that we have here. We cannot have one of everything in every campus. That just is not what we can do.”