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NDP calls out SaskParty over NORTEP-NORPAC consolidation

Sep 28, 2016 | 5:03 PM

The announcement of the consolidation of the NORTEP-NORPAC school in La Ronge has drawn the ire of the Saskatchewan NDP’s advanced education critic Warren McCall.

“In some ways it’s a sign of how desperate (the SaskParty is) now that they’ve been relatively clear with the public what the budget is, and what the shortfall is,” McCall said. “This is a program that by their own studies, has come up as a success and should be built upon.”

The SaskParty conducted a study on the NORTEP-NORPAC programs in 2014, the results of which were acquired by the NDP through an Access to Information Request.

According to McCall, the results show a successful program which shouldn’t be consolidated.

“This is a report that the ministry of Advanced Education participated in, which came back with a glowing checklist of all the things that NORTEP-NORPAC was doing right,” McCall said.

He accused the SaskParty of trying to fix their fiscal wrongs by cutting funding to the school and said targeting the school which they had previously validated made “absolutely no sense.”

The study found nine out of 10 graduates who responded are working in jobs directly related to their field of study. As well, 92 per cent of graduates from the programs “indicated the program they completed at NORTEP and NORPAC was highly effective in preparing them for this role.” 

McCall said this is a broken promise by the SaskParty and does not keep Saskatchewan strong.

“You’d like to think they would have had the guts to be up front about it before the election,” McCall said. “This is an attack on the north. This is an attack on northern jobs. This is an attack on northern opportunities.”

 

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas