Editor's note: This is one in a series of four articles in the May 25 print edition, covering different perspectives regarding the ongoing relationship between Athabasca University and the Athabasca community. Please see below for links to the other three stories - cZ
ATHABASCA – Both the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County have written to Athabasca University to express concerns with the decreasing number of staff working in the region and to ask that the new president of the institution be required to reside in the area, but the town has taken it a step further and agreed to help pay for a professional lobbyist to advocate on behalf of the community.
At their May 18 regular meeting, town councillors unanimously passed a motion to provide 50 per cent of the cost for the ‘Keep Athabasca in Athabasca University’ ad-hoc group to pay for the services of a lobbyist, up to $7,500, that will come from town reserves.
“The group has done some interviews already, and they are estimating the cost would be somewhere between $7,500 and $15,000 for a 30 to 45-day campaign,” said Coun. Rob Balay. “So, they have asked town council, because of how important this issue is to our community, and the economic impact and social impact that it has in our community, that we invest some money toward covering the cost of that lobbyist.”
And it needs to be done quickly.
“According to the lobbyists, it needs to be done immediately. They said if we haven't acted on this within 30 to 45 days, then we may as well not act,” said Balay.
The ad-hoc group is also planning on approaching the county for a similar contribution, said group member John Ollerenshaw, but if that doesn’t work out, they are willing to start fundraising themselves.
“We're going to try to hit (Athabasca) County up, but I don't know how well that's going to work. I think individuals will kick in if that doesn’t work. This issue of AU leaving – basically abandoning this Athabasca campus – I think it's a really huge story. It's not just about a budget,” he said.
So, what exactly does a lobbyist do?
Mayor Colleen Powell answered that question, before the motion was put to a vote.
“They will be making overtures to the various ministers, they will target specific people, and they will walk them through the information, presenting our case, on an individual basis. That's where the benefit is. Also, they are people who are in this case, people who are automatically, because of their own belief systems probably members of the party, or if not, supporters, so they will have an automatic in,” she said. “If you were going to be lobbying Rachel Notley's government you would use a very different kind of person, but the right lobbyists here will be collecting information and giving that information to the right people, getting in and talking to them and trying to cut the deal. That's what they do for a living.”
Coun. John Traynor said he was concerned it may already be too late, and about public money being used.
“I understand this is a really important issue for our town, and it has been for a number of years now, but I always felt like that's why we have an MLA that speaks for us,” he said.
Balay responded to that directly.
“I guess my counter to that would be, considering that 10 years from now we can lose up to $4 million a year in economic benefit in our community ... this is our best chance, due to the presidential search, and everything else, so it would have the biggest impact,” he said. “Time is of the essence and lobbyists are working for many municipalities because that's kind of the way things are done now, it's not done like in the old days where the mayor can phone up, or the CAO can phone up the premier, or walk into a senior minister's office and have a conversation. Those are things in the past, this is how business is done now, so the group feels that it's their best bet to move forward.”
Coun. Tannia Cherniwchan agreed with that assessment.
“We can't sit on our hands at this point, we do have to make a statement. I realize it's a lot of (money) and it's going to take maybe even more than $7,500, and maybe that's where it's really going to hurt, that's when we'll have to do even more thinking about where we're going to get the money. I agree it is costly, but at this juncture, we really have no choice, we've got to push for it, and see where it ends up.”
Coun. Dave Pacholok said he had no problem with the town contributing to the cause.
“I look at areas such as Cornwall and Hees Estates and all the building that has gone on has been coming through the university being expanded, and it would be dangerous for this town to dilute the people that are involved in the university that have homes in these areas, it would be totally devastating for this town.”
Athabasca County Coun. Warren Griffin also chairs the tourism and economic development (TED) committee. He said he wasn’t sure if the committee specifically would be involved, but the issue would be the topic of an upcoming joint council meeting between the town and the county. He noted AU’s crucial role as an economic force in the region, and its involvement on the committee.
“I mean AU, they've been a strong supporter, they sit on (TED) with Gilbert (Perras) there and he's quite active on the committee, so AU is doing a lot for the region through TED now and I would hope and expect – I look forward them to being there for many years to come.
“We've got a lot of challenges moving forward on this. I don't think it's just a simple solution unfortunately; I wish it could (be), if this was 30 years ago, there was a simple solution — the provincial government could just say you're having everything in Athabasca, which they did back in the 80s.”
Griffin also noted comments Perras made at the April 28 TED committee meeting.
“I'm not going to say this is a bad thing to write letters ... but it's hard to say when you hear Gilbert say there's been no discussions about moving, well then where did this come from because somebody's got a concern,” he said.
Perras is the chair of the sub-committee on broadband connectivity, and TED is preparing to conduct a survey of residents to find out what their service is actually like.
“I truly believe that once we, if we can get to the point where we have really strong, rural broadband in this region, and we can work really hard to recruit people from the cities to live here,” Perras said at that meeting.
with files from Heather Stocking
Ad-hoc group concerned for local university jobs
No decisions made on future of AU staff, says university
Athabasca not a liability to university, says AUFA president
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