By Bryan Eneas

NORTEP-NORPAC students lobby Ottawa to save their program

Dec 12, 2016 | 3:49 PM

Come July 2017, the 40-year-old NORTEP-NORPAC program in La Ronge will be no more.

Members of the NORTEP-NORPAC students’ association made a trip to Ottawa in an attempt to save their program.

The Northern Teacher Education Program (NORTEP) provides teachers to the northern regions of the province, where many of the students who attend the program are from. The Northern Professional Access College (NORPAC) was founded in 1989 to bring these same people arts and science programs.

Rielle Desjarlais, the student association’s vice president, visited Ottawa for the first time at the invite of NDP MP Georgina Jolibois. She was there to try and lobby for federal funding to save NORTEP-NORPAC.

“The provincial government didn’t seem to hear us, they only heard what they wanted to say,” Desjarlais said. “They seemed kind of distanced with us.”

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The students who went to Ottawa attended an early Christmas dinner and a small get together with some NDP MPs. She said the politicians were very supportive of the students’ cause.

“They’re always supporting us, and telling us how they appreciate us going out there to get our voices heard,” Desjarlais said. “They understand our side, and they’re doing everything they can to help us, especially Georgina who invited us there.”

Desjarlais said she wasn’t overly satisfied with what happened while she was in Ottawa. She said NORTEP-NORPAC used to be federally and provincially funded.

“What we were going for was to get more money from the federal government, even 50/50 again, or all the funding we would have gotten from the provincial government,” Desjarlais said.

Jolibois has been lobbying Indigenous and Northern Affairs minister Carolyn Bennett to fill the funding void left by the SaskParty. She said she has spoken with and sent letters to the minister, asking to support the NORTEP-NORPAC program.

“The students requested that I assist in this process,” Jolibois said. “They’re young people who have future dreams and future goals, and who want to pursue their northern education in La Ronge.”

She said when officials from her office attended a stakeholders meeting, it was made clear to them the program needs to be run autonomously in order to maintain their northern cultural identity.

Jolibois praised the program for its success over the years.

“The current students from over the years, the number of graduates NORTEP has produced, the graduates are doing really well in their communities,” Joilbois said. “Some are teaching, others are in leadership roles and contributing in their communities.”

Jolibois said the resources provided by NORTEP-NORPAC have greatly benefitted Indigenous peoples in Northern Saskatchewan.

According to Jolibois, re-instating funding for NORTEP-NORPAC would be a step towards the renewed relationship between the Crown and the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

“Anything to enhance, expand and work with programs such as NORTEP-NORPAC would assist with that,” Jolibois said. “Within the last few weeks there are things that have occurred that seemed to have disappointed many elders, as well as many youth and communities across Canada.”

The Government of Saskatchewan has previously stated the program will be consolidated at the end of the school year. Students currently in NORTEP-NORPAC programming will be allowed to finish their studies, but the program will no longer be accepting new students.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas