Post-secondary education: the Benefits Blueprint
2008 April 7
From the Office of the Premier:
Sixteen recommendations, including the following on post-secondary education:
- Launch an Energy Skills Centre of Excellence that will conduct research; showcase and test new technologies; incubate new energy sector businesses; and grant degrees, certificates/diplomas, and licenses for sector-specific skills.
- Establish a Construction-Skills Training Program at the NBCC Saint John campus to extend and strengthen technical training, attract more women to the trades, and improve capacity
Response from John McLaughlin, president of the University of New Brunswick: “UNB supports all of these recommendations, and is particularly pleased to see reference to the development of an Energy Skills Centre of Excellence.”
“Energy?” Is that creative, intellectual, social, or some more smoky kind?
“Centre?” Is that geo-centred, populace- centred, government-centred, or industry-centred?
“Excellence?” By what measurement?
The rhetoric sounds familiar. Where is the money, incentaive and other mechanism?
I can’t seem to find the 16 recommendations via the link provided.
Did anyone else get the willies right from the start of that media release when they read, “…Government of Canada, Government of New Brunswick and Irving Oil Ltd”
Interesting trio.
Yeah, and get a load of those sixteen recommendations. It doesn’t take a soothsayer to predict which ones will be implemented and which ones will fall by the wayside.
There surely are a lot of words in those recommendations. What do you suppose they all mean? Here are my predictions:
Supply chain development …
… try to insert NB middlemen into the supply chain in order to ensure the maximum profit to Liberal supporters who launch short term enterprises to support the construction phase and then go bust as soon as the concrete has dried.
Implement workforce expansion programs …
… attract as many workers as possible for the construction phase and leave them without jobs thereafter — a very Saint John-like boom & bust cycle. Remember Lepreau I, the frigate program, the refinery upgrade!
Establish a pilot project for an extended hours child-care facility…
… this is a short term program to facilitate workforce expansion programs — unlikely to survive the end of the construction phase when “budgetary priorities” will dictate that it be terminated, the fate of most pilot projects.
Launch a multi-faceted program for supporting low-income students attending secondary schools…
… hmm, interesting, did they just misspeak here or do they really mean “secondary schools?” If so, what about students attending post-secondary institutions?
Assist economically challenged priority neighbourhoods…
… this looks like another on-line boondoggle, all software and soft thinking but no substantive actions.
Develop and market a Social Purchasing Portal…
… another aspect of the workforce expansion program, this one designed to use “the hard to employ” for short term labour.
Improve infrastructure in the southern part of the province specific to the project areas…
… provide water and sewage upgrades, etcetera for Irving enterprises from the public purse.
Ensure the provision of a wide range of housing options…
… build a series of trailer parks — tomorrow’s slums today.
Implement an industrial land readiness strategy…
… expropriate private lands and/or alienate Crown lands for industrial purposes.
Establish a Business Productivity Enhancement Program…
… as for “supply chain development.”
Launch an Energy Skills Centre of Excellence…
… build an energy polytechnic — what other sort of institution awards both academic “degrees” and industrial licenses? This too will be a short term affair to bring the workforce numbers to a required level that will thereafter be sustained by on-job training.
Establish a Construction-Skills Training Program at the NBCC Saint John campus…
… a good idea, something axed by a previous Liberal government because we had a “post-industrial economy” and were all destined to work in call centres.
Develop an Environmental Capital Strategy…
… window dressing, and unlikely to be brought to fruition due to competing budgetary priorities.
Identify and develop a Signature Maritime Destination…
… interesting that they can’t support the NB Museum properly but now want to build something bigger, better and more expensive. Who will fund it once it is built? Oh, here’s a thought, it will be a financial bust and be sold to a casino developer for twenty cents on the dollars.
Develop a Cultural Strategy…
… as for the above.
Implement a Healthcare Capacity Expansion Project…
… expand the physical facilities so that we can have even more wards closed due to budget difficulties and the shortage of physicians.
… and more eyewash about medical education from a government that has already said it can’t foot the bill for this.