ATHABASCA — It was a busy week for the Keep Athabasca in Athabasca University (KAAU) advocacy group on a couple of fronts as members attended a last-minute meeting with government officials and the province’s largest public services union pledged its support.
On Dec. 2 KAAU members John Ollerenshaw and Mavis Jacobs met with Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides, MLA Glenn van Dijken, Town of Athabasca mayor Rob Balay, Athabasca County reeve Brian Hall, Village of Boyle mayor Colin Derko, Canadian Strategy Group lobbyist Hal Danchilla and ministerial assistant to Nicolaides, Aderoiu Alao.
“The minister requested the meeting to reconnect with community members and outline ideas to work together to find the right path forward for Athabasca University (AU) and our broad community,” Jacobs said in a Dec. 4 e-mail.
She said the minister has placed a high priority on getting and keeping local representation on the AU board of governors and proposed a standing committee comprised of AU and community members to focus on regional employment development and increased job opportunities.
“The minister emphasized that (AU) is not moving out of Athabasca and local employment is a priority,” Jacobs said. “Good news is, he is exploring providing clear expectations or a directive to (AU) regarding its responsibility to the community for local job opportunities and economic development.”
She added the KAAU and municipal officials taking part in the meeting emphasized the ripple effect of AU’s near-virtual strategy which is "rapidly destroying many parts of the local economy and is impinging on the social and cultural fabric of our community.”
That's something Alberta’s largest public sector union, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) has noticed as well, said president Guy Smith Dec. 1. AUPE has members at AU, Alberta Treasury Branch, in healthcare, and other government agencies across the greater Athabasca region, representing 100s of people living and working in the Athabasca region.
“Obviously, it impacts members but I think what we're seeing more is the impact on the community as a whole,” Smith said in a Zoom interview during AUPE’s convention Dec. 1-4. “Athabasca is a wonderful community but it is sustained to a large degree by the public services in the community; Athabasca University probably being the single, most largest.”
Smith said many small communities are being abandoned as employers relocate to larger centres and forget their responsibility to rural areas. There is a ripple effect as jobs leave – people move their bank accounts, meaning less staff are needed locally, hospital beds are closed as the population decreases and so on.
“We always try and connect with the employer of members, either if it's on the basis of how our members are being treated on the worksite but also importantly on the situation where you could see the community decimated,” Smith said, not ruling out a meeting with incoming AU president Peter Scott.
The steady stream of jobs leaving the region may also be contributing to the declining enrolment numbers for AU, KAAU said.
“AU undergraduate course enrolment from April to October 2021 has dropped 11 per cent year-over-year. Increasingly, the near-virtual shift makes long-term viability of the institution a major concern,” said Jacobs. “We stressed the importance of reinvigorating the university's home in Athabasca, protecting, and expanding a cross-section of university and other jobs in the region, and ensuring that all of (AU)'s infrastructure in our community is used productively.”
Jacobs also noted AU has been actively recruiting staff to work from home across Canada but very few report to the Athabasca campus.
“The university saga continues, and we trust (Minister Nicolaides) when he says he is committed to creating more job opportunities and economic development in our community,” she said.
