The politicians were beaming as they stood at the future site of the Northern Manitoba Mining Academy one summer day in 2010.
They focused their remarks not so much on the NMMA itself – by then, that was old news – but on the computerized underground mining simulator the college would house.
“It’s going to be a very, very good investment that we are making,” Lynne Yelich, then the federal Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, proudly stated.
Premier Greg Selinger agreed that the roughly $850,000 in federal and provincial funds needed to buy the high-tech simulator would be money well spent.
But neither Selinger nor Yelich mentioned (or necessarily knew) that private industry, not public educators, would decide, at least initially, which students receive training on the simulator.
The NMMA’s first mining simulation course got underway this week with Hudbay covering the full cost of – and selecting all students for – the multi-week class.
This type of arrangement, known as contract training, appears to take place at multiple public colleges, so NMMA is hardly breaking new ground.
And there can be no complaint against Hudbay. The company is merely taking advantage of an opportunity to safely prepare employees for work underground – and paying for the privilege.
Still, we must question a practice that essentially leases space and resources at a public college to the private sector.
The rationale for the policy is that the NMMA lacks the budget to offer simulator training to students from the general public. It can only be done through cost-recovery deals with Hudbay or other interested companies.
If that’s the case, it’s a question of poor judgment on the part of governments. They used tax money to buy a costly mining simulator, then failed to fund the college to a level where any student can benefit from that training at an affordable tuition rate.
There are also concerns among educators that opening such a specialized course to any and all applicants is no guarantee those students will find employment upon graduation.
In reality, no school can guarantee graduates employment. Life itself has no guarantees. Even the Hudbay employees now being trained to work underground could be let go tomorrow if mining suffers a nosedive.
To be clear, the simulator training is the only NMMA course whose enrollment is restricted to students chosen by private industry.
Moreover, it’s possible that the simulator will one day be open to all applicants. The province has told me of plans for a new post-secondary grant that “will include student exposure to the simulator,” details to announced.
But for now, many taxpayers are rightfully uncomfortable with the status quo. If industry can fund and pick students for one NMMA course, will other courses follow? Are our underfunded college classrooms for sale to the highest bidder?
The NMMA represents a valuable investment in the Flin Flon region. And Hudbay, to its full credit, has been a vital partner in ensuring the college’s success.
But public colleges need to be fully accessible to all students who meet the academic criteria for enrollment.
The NDP government, which funds and regulates the NMMA, has an obligation to boost the college’s funding to ensure all forms of training are available to all applicants, not just those who already have their foot in the door of industry.
Until that happens, the NDP can make no reasonable claim that Manitoba is a province of full and unfettered educational equality.
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Premier Greg Selinger in the then-unfinished mining simulator at the Northern Manitoba Mining Academy in 2011.
