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JAMMIN’ 4 JAY P. 4 SKATEBOARD PARK UPDATE P. 5
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EDITORIAL P. 6 PETER RODSETH REMEMBERED P. 8-9
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Wednesday, April 8, 2015
CNC president voices one-college model restructuring The school’s $2.8 million deficit demands cut backs, layoffs and standardization Rebecca Watson Omineca Express Layoff notices have been issued to a number of College of New Caledonia (CNC) employees due to a growing $2.8 million deficit. During a public meeting at the Vanderhoof campus on April 1, CNC president Henry Reiser said the notices will not come into effect until July 31, adding people may, in fact, not be laid off. However, Reiser made it clear that job cuts were inevitable. “But let’s be frank, there will be job losses. The only way to meet the target of 10 per cent operational funding is vertical cuts. Since 2007, $12 million has been
removed from the base budget… were at a point [that] there’s nothing left,” Reiser said. Each year the college board is required to approve a balanced budget. Since 2008-2009, the college has had to find roughly $12.5 million in additional revenues or reductions in expenses to continually achieve a balanced budget. For the fiscal year 20152016, a combination of expense reductions and revenue increases totalling $2.8 million is required to achieve the required balanced operating budget. When CNC hired Reiser nearly a year ago, he implemented a one-college model standardizing programming and administration at all six campuses includ-
ing Fort St. James, Burns Lake, Vanderhoof, Prince George and Quesnel. The reason for the implementation of the new model, Reiser said, is to ensure all students receive the same experience and to save money. “Convocation for example is different at every school so standardizing will ensure students are getting the same experience at each campus,” Reiser said. A cost recovery program will start to contribute 15 per cent of total revenue toward college overhead including costs such as student services, human resources and payroll, maintaining buildings and equipment and paying vendors for their services. Continued on page 2
Photo by Rebecca Watson
PUBLIC HEARING: CNC president Henry Reiser answers questions about the College’s debt problems at the Vanderhoof Campus April 1.
Binche finalizes separation from Tl’azt’en Rebecca Watson Omineca Express The Binche First Nation is demanding self-determination and a split from the Tl’azt’en First Nation. Joshau Hallman, chair of the Binche Operations Committee said the band, located north of Fort St. James, wants to go in its own way. “Right now our direction is being controlled by Tl’azt’en Nation but Binche wants to drive their own steering wheel and
take on direction of their own values and principles,which right now we’re following someone else’s,” Hallman said. Binche, Tache, Dzit’ainli and Yekooche First Nations were amalgamated in 1959 as the Stewart Trembleur Band. Yekooche was the first to de-amalgamate in the ‘90s and have since been on their own. The Stewart Trembleur Band later changed the name to Tl’azt’en Nation which consists of the three small First Nation communities (Binche, Tache and Dzit’ainli,
a.k.a. Middle River). Binche First Nation first talked about separating from Tl’azt’en in 2011 and has since passed a resolution to become independent. Binche and Tl’azt’en are now working on finalizing the terms-of-division needed to split all assets, liabilities and reserve lands, Hallman said. “We’re coming into the third step out of four. We’ve submitted the negotiated termsof-division agreement to the Aboriginal Affairs of Northern Development of Canada (AANDC) BC region who have reviewed
the terms and have gotten back with legal formatting suggestions. If we get our termsof-division reformatted and that satisfies the federal government and it doesn’t need to be amended, we expect to have the deamalgamation within a year,” Hallman said. Tl’azt’en First Nation is comprised of seven councillors and one chief. Tache has four councillors, Binche has two and Dzit’ainli with one. This means Tache First Nation has majority of control over Tl’azt’en and any funding the band receives. Continued on page 3
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