Councillor warns proposed cuts at Algonquin College will impact ‘students and Ottawa’s economy’

An Ottawa councillor is asking the provincial government for additional support to keep Algonquin College from cutting programs. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

A city councillor is calling on the Ontario government to increase funding to Algonquin College, warning planned program cuts will “impact both students and Ottawa’s economy.”

Algonquin College’s Board of Governors will vote later this month on a recommendation to cancel 30 programs at its campuses in Ottawa and Pembroke, including journalism, design foundations, Culinary Arts and Food Service, hospitality and Horticulture Industries.

In a statement on its website, Algonquin College said the “strategic changes” to its course selection will “ensure alignment with student and labour market demands, financial sustainability and resource optimization.”

• ‘It’s hard on the students’: looming Algonquin College program cuts prompt calls for greater post-secondary funding

In a letter to Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn, Coun. Laine Johnson calls on the province to increase funding to Algonquin College to offset the loss of tuition revenues that “changes to international student visa programs have created.”

“We cannot lose momentum in education and training for Ontario workers,” Johnson writes in the letter posted on Facebook.

“Evidence tells us that the more educated a society is, the more productive its economy will be. Countries or regions with highly trained people will attract advanced industries, generate more savings and investment and create entirely new economic sectors.”

Algonquin College says the plan to suspend 30 programs is part of its strategic program planning, “which includes responding to recent policy decisions by the federal government and prevailing provincial funding shortfalls.”

“The recommendations are a necessary response to rapid and significant shifts in the post-secondary landscape, including enrolment volatility and changing labour market and student demand,” the college said.

Last year, Algonquin College suspended 41 programs and closed the Perth Campus due to the decline in international enrolment, a “prolonged provincial tuition freeze, chronic underfunding.”

Johnson says Algonquin College is now “facing cuts to several important programs that offer hands-on, practical training to students wanting to enter the workforce.”

“These programs have a proven track record of gathering well-educated and well-trained professional graduates to our area businesses,” Johnson writes. “For many companies and organizations, these cuts will leave a marked vulnerability in our local economy.”

Johnson urged the province to invest in education and training.

“To be competitive, Ottawa, and indeed all of Ontario, needs to have a trained workforce ready to take on the challenges of businesses entering our economy,” Johnson said.

“Algonquin College continues to innovate to meet the economic challenges of the day, but it is being left to make financial decisions that erode its ability to respond.”

Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa at Work at Patricia Boal, Johnson said a lot of Ottawa families have a story of an “Algonquin College grad.”

“This is not the first round of cuts that Algonquin College has had to make in the face of declining revenues and expenditures that they need to maintain for a campus facility that is well loved by everybody,” Johnson said.

“I thought it was time to call on the province to pay attention to the funding model that colleges are facing across this province because it is having dramatic impacts on our local economies.”

Johnson says students have told her Algonquin College has programs that provide employees to the City of Ottawa and local businesses.

The Algonquin College Board of Governors will vote on the recommendation to suspend 30 programs on Feb. 23.

Student reaction

Scotlyn Bahm is in the culinary arts program and say she was “disappointed,” when she heard the program was going to be cancelled.

“It’s really fun. I was always interested in cooking,” she says. “You get to be hands-on in the kitchen.”

“We should never be cutting funding for any post-secondary schooling because it doesn’t make sense to me,” Michael Roberts, Bahm’s classmate, says.

Abby Piersma is in the museums studies program and says she is doing what she can to save the program.

“I’ve been signing petitions and talking about it. I’m a class rep as well, so I’ve been in communication with some of the academic chairs,” Piersma said.

Fellow student Chelsea Saunders says there will be many jobs that will go unfiled in Ottawa, or students will be forced to try to find jobs in other provinces.

“It’ll probably lead to some holes in museums for sure,” Saunders said.

Student Lindsay Ludington says she’s worried about the future generations of students who won’t get the same opportunities.

“I’ve loved exhibits since I was young, and I really want young kids to feel as I did,” Ludington said.

‘A growing gap’

The potential suspension of Algonquin College’s horticulture program is raising concerns about the future of green-space training and workforce development in Ottawa, according to the program’s coordinator.

Tommy Wingreen, who has worked in the horticulture program for more than 15 years, says the program prepares students for a wide range of careers tied directly to the local economy — from residential landscaping to urban agriculture and sustainable food production.

“Horticulture really covers everything related to plants and gardens,” he said. “It’s mostly residential landscaping — installation and maintenance — but we also teach urban agriculture, interior landscaping, and even areas like cannabis production. Students can really shape their own career paths.”

Graduates often move directly into jobs that support Ottawa’s growing demand for green spaces, including private landscaping companies and public projects. Wingreen says interest from employers has only increased over time.

“I get more and more calls from companies looking for graduates,” he said. “There’s a growing gap in the industry, and we’re the ones training people to fill it.”

That demand is what makes the possibility of suspending the program especially troubling, he added. While acknowledging the program may not be among the college’s biggest financial contributors, Wingreen says its broader value is being overlooked.

“It’s hard when the college is forced to focus only on finances and not the whole mandate of supporting the community,” he said.

Provincial reaction

In a statement to CTV News, Bianca Giacoboni Press Secretary to the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, wrote, “Due to the federal government’s repeated changes to the international student permit system, the postsecondary sector, including Algonquin College, is making some difficult decisions to ensure their long-term success and sustainability.”

The statement says, “We are also working with our postsecondary partners to modernize their funding model, to be more responsive and sustainable, by examining how we fund priority programs, how we can better support small, rural, and northern institutions, and how we can align funding with student success outcomes to ensure graduates are job ready.”

With files from CTV’s Leah Larocque.

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