TransCanada Donates 250K to CNC
CNC president Henry Reiser – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – TransCanada has announced a $250,000 donation towards skill training programs at the College of New Caledonia.
The money will go towards bursaries ($55,000), skills training($45,000), and the implementation of the school’s Digital Delivery Initiative (or DDI, $150,000).
“It’s a wonderful gift. We desperately need that for the implementation of our DDI. But if you also look and see how committed TransCanada is to students welfare with the safety training program it will be a real benefit. Also the legacy of the bursary for trades students is also something that is very appreciated,” says CNC president Henry Reiser.
TransCanada’s Kiel Giddens says the donation was made in part because “we’ve been listening to communities over the past few years and we’ve heard loud and clear that skills training is an essential component to the labour force.”
He admits it will also help provide a skilled talent pool for the company in the years to come.
“Absolutely. TransCanada will rely on this local workforce for its projects and we’re excited to recruit from CNC and we see this as a partnership that is really just the beginning.”
The energy giant is developing more than $13 billion in new natural gas pipeline projects in northern B.C. in support of the emerging liquefied natural industry.
Comments
Okay, just who is TransCanada??? and what’s in it for them, aside from a write off.
Thank you. Hopefully more businesses will see this and do the same.
Yes they can write it off. If you donated money to the college you could write it off too.
Gas company buying citizens acceptance of their pipe line is what I see….
I see it as TransCanada paying for the training of their future work force. What’s wrong with that?
I am sure Trans Canada or Enbridge donating money is not donating for the purpose of a tax receipt. They choose to participate in developing local talent.
I am usually not a fence sitter on a item but this has me being one.
I know how our province is when it comes to tradespeople.. our provincial government has cut so much there is not a lot of money left to fill these skills.
I dont like having oil and gas mining being shoved down our throats, but again our provincial and federal gov will allow it to happen.. so we may as well get something out of it.
$250,000 isnt a lot of money.. with the right offs these companies are getting its a small drop in the bucket.. but we might as well grab that bucket and run with it.
business = dollars
no dollars, no business.
Business does not contribute charitably without a Return on Investment (ROI), that is why there are income tax incentives for charitable donations.
I could prove this: if the federallies were to remove these incentives, we would see a very steep decline in corporate sponsorship.
As to exactly why a pipeline proponent would want to make a charitable donation to an industry training facility at this time when oil pricing is depressed, and general support has not been garnered in the region where they are supposed to draw their workforce from. It is such a quandary why they would do such a thing.
As P Val said, this is a small drop in a large bucket for them. Altruism does not exist, especially in business.
Think again why they would make such a donation and in such a manner.
I think Loki’s comment would be valid for Northern Gateway, but Trans Canada is in the natural gas pipe building business in Northern BC so tend to have the support of the province and First Nations.
I wonder about that company from Austrailia that just bought the 50% Apache share from the Chevron led LNG plant for Kitimat. They are supposed to be one of the biggest LNG plant operators in the world. Are they going to start taking Canadian apprentices to Australia to train in a real world facility, so as to have a Canadian trained work force, or will they just import their work force from Australia or elsewhere?
Fully agree with Loki and those who predict that there will serious strings attached to this “gift”. Industry no longer thinks in terms of community wellbeing, but in terms of impression management, especially when that industry has difficulty creating broad public acceptance of their product or service.
Nope, this is CNC’s administration selling out the college’s good name for a few crumbs off the oil and gas corporations’ table. It’s also a component in creating BCIT North where the academic side of the house will eventually be sacrificed to bolster Trades and Technology. This is an abrogation of the commitment the college made to this community many years ago, the development of the university notwithstanding.
I’m neither against trades and technology or the development of a greater emphasis on educating a workforce that will step into the coming skills gap created by retiring baby-boomers, but not to the exclusion of everything else. I don’t think Reiser’s approach does not represent the majority opinion of college personnel, nor, I believe, of the community’s desire for a true community college.
Trans Canada office in Prince George is located in the new building on fifth Avenue (Kinsmen way).
They are supposedly going to build a pipeline from ‘Ft St John, to Pt Edward,Prince Rupert BC. This was announced in 2013 and was to be completed in 2018.
The pipeline is part of the LNG export plans for PETRONAS, who has decided not to do anything in the immediate future because of the glut of natural gas, and the inability to get a long term (30 year) contract.
So I guess we wait to see what happens. The donated money is part of being **good corporate citizens**.
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