Mark My Words — It’s Time to Be Bold

Resourceful. Down to earth. Value conscious. If I had to describe the people of rural Manitoba, that’s what would come to mind. Having moved to the Prairies myself 12 years ago, this has made it a comfortable fit for me as a place to call home. On many levels there’s a great values match.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have high expectations for what Brandon, Westman and Manitoba should aspire to and what it should achieve.

In the speech from the throne on Nov. 16, the provincial government outlined a number of initiatives it plans to undertake. I’ve seen those items described by commentators, partisans, pundits and others in a variety of ways. Bold. Wasteful. Ambitious. Unrealistic. Interesting. Recycled. The list is as varied as the viewpoints of different Manitobans.

No matter one’s perspective on these issues, it does beg the questions: What type of province do we aspire to be and what are the best means of achieving that vision? Many of us may even share a common vision, but there could be many paths to get us there.

For Assiniboine Community College, we were pleased to see the province signal through the speech its intention to work with the college to continue moving the development of our North Hill campus and associated program expansion along.

This is an effort that was started in 2005 and is ready for a next step in its development. That next step would be the development of a Centre for Health, Energy and Environment that would solidify our North Hill campus.

I think that next investment needs to be bold. But sometimes I think our humble nature in rural Manitoba limits us from thinking big. We tend to think of our future growth and development in incremental and practical ways.

But maybe we’d be better served, from time to time, to dream bigger, reach further and expect more. We, too, have much to offer and much to contribute.

Moving here more than five years ago, I quickly came to learn some of the dynamics inside the province. Winnipeg’s size relative to the rest of the population gives it a certain gravity. Consequently, people around the province have come to expect the capital city to have a series of exceptional assets.

As a result, investments like the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a greatly expanded convention centre, CentrePort Canada and a new airport terminal in Winnipeg make sense to many. Even the more fiscally conservative among us might acknowledge that many of the investments in these types of public infrastructure make sense for the type of Manitoba we all want to live in.

However, do we hold out these same expectations in areas outside of our capital city? We should. A strong and vibrant Manitoba needs diversified interests. Further, many of the economic engines of this province live in rural and northern Manitoba — agriculture, mining, energy and value-added processing to name a few.

As a result, does a critical piece of public infrastructure like the Keystone Centre also merit due consideration? Certainly.

Six years ago, when I was first being recruited to ACC, I was captivated by the vision that the community had for the institution. It was to create a college like no other in the country, one that held fast to its roots of delivering labour market relevant training to students when and where they needed it.

But it went much further. It envisioned a flagship North Hill campus that would have a learning environment without compare in the country.

That bold vision is as compelling today as it was in 2005 — probably more compelling.

It’s increasingly clear that well-trained people are going to be the key to Canada’s and Manitoba’s competitiveness. Manitoba needs an institution like ACC that can be a beacon for our own population to pursue higher education.

It also needs a beacon that can attract students from beyond our borders to come here to study, and hopefully to stay. Ninety-four per cent of ACC grads choose to stay in Manitoba, 96 per cent have jobs and that contributes $613 million annually to the provincial economy.

Manitoba is a great province and we have many options for where we choose to build cornerstone assets to base our growth. Manitoba would be well served to pursue, with vigour, the bold vision it had in 2005 for Assiniboine Community College and its North Hill campus.

It could truly make it one of the greatest colleges that Canada has to offer.

- Mark is the President of Assiniboine Community College