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Friday, May 8, 2015
TRAINING
President: NIC not getting fair share MARTIN WISSMATH ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
North Island College is not getting its fair share of provincial funding, says the college president. NIC president John Bowman visited Port Alberni for a “town hall” meeting at the local campus Thursday. About 40 people turned up for a presentation with a question and answer session; among them were other NIC staff, First Nations and City of Port Alberni representatives. Bowman discussed the college’s progress in drafting a five-year “Plan 2020.” Compared to rural colleges elsewhere in B.C., NIC receives significantly less funding per capita for the regional population it serves, Bowman noted. “We’re not getting our fair share,” Bowman said. “Our tax dollars are going to support other programs elsewhere.” NIC’s $139 per capita in provin-
“Our tax dollars are going to support other programs elsewhere.” John Bowman, president of North Island Collage
cial funding is less than the $217 provincial average for rural colleges, and less than half the $314 received by the West Kootenay’s Selkirk College. Selkirk serves a population of about 75,000–80,000 people, Bowman said. With four campuses in Port Alberni, Comox Valley, Campbell River and Mount Waddington – and a learning centre in Ucluelet – NIC serves a regional population of about 158,000. It’s the largest service area for B.C.’s rural colleges. Operating an annual budget of $41 million, about $30 million of
NIC’s funding is from the provincial government. The college president also mentioned the funding challenges at the Alberni school district’s board of trustees meeting last week. He said the core grant to NIC has been reduced by over a million dollars over the past decade. “It’s been a struggle over the last 10 years to make ends meet,” Bowman said. Bill Brown, community partnership co-ordinator with the Alberni Valley Employment Centre, attended the town hall meeting Thursday. He said the Port Alberni campus needs to provide more training for jobs in the trades. “It’s a barrier for our clients to attend schools in other locations,” Brown said. People here are looking for plumbing, instrumentation, mechanics and millwright training but can’t find it in Alberni, he said. “And that’s where the demand is
BOWMAN
here.” Bowman said the college needs to find more funding partnerships in order to provide training to meet local employment needs. “Our hopes and aspirations are to deliver more trades programming here in the Alberni Valley and around the region,” Bowman said. “We know there’s a need for more
trades training and want to work on it with you.” The college’s role in supporting people to gain employment is “crucial,” Bowman said. “We’re also an important link between students and employers,” he said. Twenty-five per cent of NIC’s enrolment is in adult upgrading of high school courses, Bowman noted. As of May 1, the province is no longer providing all of the funding for adults who already have a diploma. Only students with a low income can apply for grants. “We’re very concerned about that,” Bowman said. According to Statistics Canada, Port Alberni’s unemployment rate was over 10 per cent in the 2011 national census. The B.C. unemployment rate in March of this year was 6.8 per cent. martin.wissmath@avtimes.net
CRIME
Teen recovering from bone marrow virus shaken by early morning theft of dirt bike KRISTI DOBSON ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
Alberni SPCA expands services for public Formerly closed on Mondays, the animal shelter is just finishing up its first six-day work week. » Alberni Region, 3
Dancestreams prepares for Mother’s Day show Vancouver Island’s longest established youth dance company is coming to Port Alberni on May 10. » Entertainment, 12
» Use your smartphone to jump to our Facebook page for updates on these stories or the latest breaking news.
Tristan MacDonald woke up Wednesday morning to find his two motocross bikes gone. The 13-year old E.J. Dunn student was devastated when he found out of the possible theft, especially since he had just finished putting in so much work towards building one for the current race season. MacDonald’s mother, Kim, believes the bikes, one red and white CRX 100 and one yellow RM125, were taken from their home somewhere between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. “I was up until 3 a.m. watching TV and in the backyard we have a sensor light,” Kim said. “I have a huge window so I would have noticed if it went on. A neighbour who puts their dogs out at 5:30 a.m. said they would have barked so it had to have happened between then.” When a neighbour called around 8:45 a.m. to ask if the family was missing the bikes and a jerry can of gas, Kim went to investigate. “We have an enclosed deck with a door,” she said. “The door was open and the bikes were gone,” she said. “The back tire was chained to the bike because Tristan wasn’t allowed to go out on it until the yard work was done.” Kim assumes the bikes were pushed through the yard, up a hill and across a neighbour’s yard up the road. She, along with a neighbour, noticed skid marks about three houses down from pushing the heavy bike with a locked tire. “It had to be someone who knows our backyard,” she said.
Thirteen-year-old Tristan MacDonald only had a few chances to ride his custom-built bike before it went missing on Wednesday. [SUBMITTED PHOTO]
Tristan was at school and didn’t find out what happened until he came home. In the meantime, Kim was busy on social media. She posted photos of the bikes and information about the theft. Soon a stranger sent her a message saying she had followed a truck with what looked like dirt bikes covered with a tarp.
“She thought it seemed strange that they were covered,” Kim said. The witness took photos of the truck and license plate, which were given to the Nanaimo RCMP. “We will follow-up with it and if the license plate is in our jurisdiction, we will go to the residence,” said Constable Gary
O’Brien of the Nanaimo detachment. “If the bikes are there, we will seize them and assist the RCMP in Port Alberni with the case.” Since December, Tristan had been recovering from a bone marrow virus that left him severely anemic. See THEFT, Page 3
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