Strange how there are all those trees in the background of the "artistic rendering" and they start off the project by removing all the trees.

;-)

The building looks just like the Greyhound Bus station in PG

I hear it is going to have a better restaurant though.

;-)

University enrollment was down 2.5% this year and will probably continue to decline in the coming years. It seems to me that this is a rather expensive facility for a University that may very well close its doors in 10 years if you can beleive the impact the Pine Beetle will have on this area, along with the decline in population for the whole North Central British Columbia.

On another note. If Terrace, or Prince Rupert wanted to build a Cancer Clinic in their area do you think that the people in Prince George would support them. Why is it not ok for us to fly or drive to Vancouver but we think it is perfectly ok for people from the West to Drive 400 to 500 Miles to Prince George. It seems to me that those people are correct in their assessment of the Cancer Clinic and they would be better served out of Vancouver.

Its time our leaders came to grips with the fact that this area has not grown in population for over 10 years and their is nothing on the drawing board that indicates that it will grow in the next 10 years. Is the concept of no growth beyond to ability of our Politicians and business in this area to grasp.???

BC has the lowest university participation of any province in Canada. It has been like that for more than 30 years, if not forever.

Here are the approximate statistics (only approximate since I took the population for 2001 and compared it to 2002/03 stats of university enrolment since that is what was easily available to me).

Nova Scotia – 9.54% of population enrolled in University.

Saskatechewan – 7.12%

Quebec – 7.1%

New Brunswick – 6.92%

Newfoundland – 6.73%

Ontario – 6.46%

Manitoba – 6.4%

Canada – 6.35%
Alberta – 5.61%

PEI – 5.48% (this was a surprise to me since I thought they would be closer to the rest of the maritime provinces)

BC – 4.32%

There are some slight variations in the College systems throughout Canada, but Quebec and BC, for instance, are quite similar in that they have 2 year university transfer programs.

So, in order to get up to the Canadian average BC would have to increase the number of seats by 50%. Even the recent creation of full Universities in the Okanagan hardly makes a dent. BC is about 30 years behind Ontario which created such regional Universities in the 1960’s.

The fact is, BC is a net importer of University as well as College educated people. It relies on other parts of the country and the world to educate its people.

I also know that in those industries I have been associated with, the level of formal education is typically less than is the case in eastern Canada, especially in regions outside of the lower mainland.

The question is not whether there are enough bodies who ought to go to University in BC, it is whether the mindset of people in BC is to go to University.

As far as the Pine Beetle goes, it should really not have a negative impact on the University. Quite the opposite, I think. One does not need forests in order to have a quality University. One needs qualified staff as well as quality facilities. Ther are several "University Towns" in Canada where the University is the primary "industry". Kingston Ontario, Peterborough, etc. There are about 15,000 students at Queens, which is about 10% of the metro population of Kingston.

UNBC has about 3,600 students which is about 4.5% of the "metro" population of PG. Just take a look at the number of people enrolled in the Maritimes. There are no million population cities. Far from it. The same goes for those Universities in the Eastern Townships, Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan. There are no Veterinarian schools west of Saskatchewan, for instance. There is no reason why UNBC should not have one since there is already a medical school now.

UNBC is quite capable of growing considerably even if the population in PG remainsd relatively static. That is the whole idea of the post Beetle economy - diversification plus value added. Adding value to individuals by educating them is certainly part of that in my mind.

Palopu - I am right with you as far as the North Coast of BC and its relationship to PG with respect to accessing Cancer facilties here goes. The PG case has to be made without that part of the province.

Owl. Thanks for the stats, u seem to have a way with numbers, however there is more involved here than stats.

(1) It seems that University/College enrollments are up in areas of high unemployment and go down when business in good.

(2) The Pine Beetle situation will have a negative effect on University Enrollment mainly because with less jobs in the area people will leave and by default you will have less people in Prince George available to go to University.

(3) You do not comment on the flat lining of University enrollments in Prince George in the past 3 years nor on the decline of 2.5% in 2005. Is this an anomaly or a trend??

(4) Your contention that UNBC has about 3600 students is correct, however I doubt that this number is made up of 4.5% of the *metro* population of PG. According to Dr Jago 70% of the student population comes from outside of Prince George. About 169 are foreign students, a small number from the lower mainland, and the balance from throughout BC. Approx 1000 of the students at UNBC are part time.

(5) BC Stats population for School District 57 for the next 10 years is no growth in enrollments and perhaps negative growth. Therefore we can expect little or no help for enrollments from that area, because at best we will have the same number of Graduates for the next 10 years and can assume that the same percentage or less will go on to University in this area.

(6) The population increase for all the regional districts from Fort Nelson, to 100 Mile House to Kitimat, Prince Rupert, and the Queen Charlottes has been approx 1.6% per year. That is, a total population for the entire area in 2001 of 319461 people and in 2005 of 346072. The long term projection for population increases in this area between now and 2031 do not project any significant increases and could very well decrease.

(7) As you are aware there have been significant decreases in the enrollment at CNC, and they are now in the process of discontinuing some University Transfer Courses which will not help enrollments at UNBC.

(8) If you are going to graduate thousands of students from Universitys and Colleges then you should have jobs available somewhere in the Province for them. I suggest to you there are far more University, and College graduates than there are jobs, and that a large number of these people are going to other areas. This is a direct cost to the taxpayers of BC as it costs somewhere in the are of 150,000 to 200,000 dollars to graduate a student. If you then lose this student to other areas outside the Province or Country then you have lost a significant investment that is not made up by have high paid University Faculty or Staff.

(9) I understand that we are now in the process of locating schools in foreign countries that will issue diplomas from BC. If this is so then this will significantly reduce the number of foreign students coming to BC.

(10) Building a $30.5 Million Sports Plex will have little or no impact on attracting students to UNBC. One reason is the assumption that most University Students are athletic, when in fact the opposite is true. Secondly we are so far from any other competition that we will never get to the point where we have top of the line athletes.

(11) With stiff competition for University Students through out BC and Alberta, it will very difficult to attract students to this area. This has already been alluded to by Dr. Jago and they are trying to find ways of attracting people. As you well know a large number of people from Prince George who attend University do not attend UNBC they in fact go to the lower mainland, or Alberta.
(12) My conclusion is that this University is in trouble and will be for years to come. It will take more than a Sport Plex to pull it out of the ditch.