Pembroke worries about impacts of Algonquin College budget crunch

It has been a challenging year for Ontario’s post-secondary education sector.

With the announced suspension of 41 programs and the Perth campus’ planned closure, Algonquin College has not been spared the pain.

The college benefits the communities in which it operates and Pembroke is no exception.

Algonquin is intricately tied into the economic livelihood of the Ottawa Valley city and its surrounding community. Through the educational opportunities on offer, the waterfront campus greatly contributes to the sectors that drive the region’s economy, such as forestry, the military and health-care services, according to faculty and students.

The recently announced program suspensions and the future closure of the Perth campus have triggered anxiety throughout Pembroke about the future of its own campus.

Amy Lagree, a nursing student at the Pembroke campus, enjoys the smaller size of the campus, which is a tight-knit community reflective of the small-town vibe of Pembroke overall.

Lagree says that students get to know professors more on a personal level compared to the larger Ottawa campus.

“When my friends were at those bigger campuses, they were just a number,” she said.

Lagree says the campus is important to the city of Pembroke.

“I think if it closed, it would be really unfortunate,” she said. “I have other friends here who were in nursing and were able to get jobs in town.”

Peter Arbour has been teaching in the forestry technician program at the waterfront campus for six years and is program coordinator. Arbour, who recently won an Excellence in Teaching Award from the college, says the program offers a direct path into the Ottawa Valley forestry sector.

“Eastern Ontario still has a very robust forestry industry and our grads are lapped up by these organizations as they graduate,” Arbour said. “There’s a great impact from this program out to eastern Ontario forestry.”

He says teaching at Algonquin has been the most meaningful career he’s ever had.

Arbour’s conviction that the waterfront campus is pivotal to the city of Pembroke and the regional economy was backed up by Ron Gervais, who has been the mayor of Pembroke since 2022.

He admits that he was deeply concerned about the fate of the campus in Pembroke when he heard the announcement of the Perth campus closing.

“I’d be kidding you if I said I hadn’t already thought about ‘what if’,” Gervais said. “When the closure of the Perth campus was announced, I spoke with President Brulé (college president Claude Brulé) about whether there was going to be any consequences to Pembroke and he reassured me we were safe.”

“Without the campus there, you have a number of good-paying positions which will no longer be here, which would have negative consequences,” Gervais said about the importance of the college campus in Pembroke.

“In addition to that, we simply wouldn’t have that student body that is contributing positively to our economy.”

The waterfront campus also has a close working relationship with the nearby Canadian Forces Base at Petawawa.

“We are privileged to be just down the road from Garrison Petawawa, one of the largest military bases in Canada,” said Jodi Bucholtz, manager of community and students affairs at the campus.

“We have a strong and ever-growing relationship. About 30 per cent of our student population is either a dependant, a spouse, or an exiting military member or veteran.”

Bucholtz says the staff population at the waterfront campus also reflects the strong ties to the CAF.

“We’re lucky to have a community and organizational partner like the Garrison Petawawa,” Bucholtz added.

Bucholtz says that attending Algonquin can act as a transitional support for Canadian Armed Forces members wanting to return to civilian life.

A variety of services and supports are available at the campus to Armed Forces members to help smooth out their transition from military life to student life. These include specific financial aid for students coming straight from the Armed Forces and a variety of bursaries.

For Marcie Lane, an Algonquin alumna who attended the college coming out of a military career, says the Pembroke campus offered her a lot of support in her transition.

“I was reluctant to go back to school,” she said. “I was a mature student and didn’t think I would fit in with younger students, but Algonquin had such a warm and welcoming environment.”

Lane says she learned a lot from younger students and also became a mentor.

“I felt valued, accepted and respected,” she said.

For Lane, the welcoming and supportive environment nurtured by the faculty and students at the Pembroke campus helped recreate the feeling of community and cohesion she had not felt since the Forces.

“Algonquin helped me realize my sense of purpose,” she said.