A divided Drumheller Town Council voted on Monday night to not live up to its pledge of $15,000 to Hope College.
In February of 2011 Council voted unanimously to pledge $5,000 a year for three years to the college. On Monday night, council voted 4-3 to withdraw the funding commitment. Councillors Doug Stanford, Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk, Sharel Shoff and Mayor Terry Yemen voted to cancel the pledge.
According to Stanford, a lot has changed since the town made that commitment. In January, Hope College announced it had been approved for courses in business and in tourism. There is also a justice program pending approval. The college is taking applications and classes are slated to commence in the fall.
Stanford says this is not the vision the town signed on to support. The vision was of health-based post secondary education and this initial offering of the college falls short.
“It was to do with training LPN (Licensed Practical Nurses) and druggists, not business, we have Olds College to do that,” said Stanford. “I would like to see it expand out more instead of these little courses they offer.”
Stanford says this is on a temporary basis and council will be reviewing it in the future. He adds that the college so far has not had the ability to garner support from the province and that also played into council’s decision.
Garbutt voted to honour council’s pledge to the college. He understands some of the concerns of other councillors.
“Hope College itself acknowledges that the path they have had to take is not their first choice, or maybe not even their second choice, in terms of programs. But it doesn’t change the fact they are able to move forward with some post secondary program delivery in the valley and that is a goal that a good chunk of this community has been committed to for quite some time,” said Garbutt.
He adds that living up to the pledge would “signal an important message of support from the leaders of this community that we are glad they are moving forward.”
Mayor Yemen says the town remains supportive to the project, despite withdrawing their financial support. He said the pledge was made in a specific set of circumstances that no longer exists.
In February of 2011, Hope Health was looking for pledges to support their grant application to the Rural Alberta Development Fund for $1.1 million. At the time, it indicated the pledges would be honoured only if the grant was approved. At that time, council notes indicated the Town had already donated $5,000 in 2010. The grant application failed.
“The engine that drives post secondary education is not the municipality, but the provincial government. They have zero support from the provincial government,” said Yemen.
He says Council is still supportive to post-secondary education and to Hope College, but is not sure how it will show support in the future.
“For us to throw dollars at it when it didn’t get the grant and when it isn’t providing the curriculum we were originally told it was going to provide is not a good expenditure at this time,” said Yemen.
Councillor Berdahl sees the support of Hope College as less of a post secondary education issue and more of an economic development effort. Her says the college has wide support from the community and plays a significant role in the town’s Municipal Sustainability Plan (MSP) for economic development and quality of life.
“It is written right into (our MSP),” said Berdahl.
“Economic development is perhaps the most challenging of Council’s areas of responsibility, and it takes vision, awareness, courage, wisdom, patience, persistence, diligence and teamwork to be successful…If I had to boil that down, I would have to talk about courage and wisdom. I’m not talking about taking wild risks, I’m talking about taking prudent risks and knowing that risks are necessary.”
Jon Ohlhauser of Hope College understands the rationale for council deciding not to recommit to the college.
“I respect that councillors are public servants who are elected to that position and have the responsibility of looking after the taxpayers, and at that particular moment in deliberations about Hope College, they were not in the position to recommit,” he said.
He adds he was surprised council was making this decision on Monday. He is looking forward to working with council.
“We are looking forward to discussing the details of the college plan now in greater detail and we are hoping they will be in a stronger position of confidence in the next couple weeks.”
