INNOVATION March-April 2018

T orontonians are often accused by other Canadians of thinking their city is the centre of the universe. Residents of northern British Columbia tend not to go quite that far, but many do feel that people in Vancouver and Victoria take for granted that of course every right-minded person would love to live, study, and work where they do. But it’s simply not true, the northerners say. In fact, many who live in northern (and rural) BC are simply not interested in bright lights and big cities, or their sky-high cost of living. That’s why this January announcement was front-page news outside the big southern cities: the Province of British Columbia has pledged $650,000 in funding (with more to follow) to the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and the College of New Caledonia, both in Prince George, to expand their engineering programs. “It’s going to help young people who want to come here or stay here for their education,” says Dr. Todd Whitcombe, UNBC’s chair of Chemistry, Environmental Science and Environmental Engineering. “It’s also going to help companies in the North who need engineers and technologists, and it’s going to help northern communities and their economies.” The provincial funding comes in response to studies that indicate there will be more than 80,000 job openings in tech-related fields in BC over the next decade, with more than 2,000 expected in northern BC. Since the vast majority of tech workers, including 90 percent of engineers (according to the Engineers, Geoscientists, Technologists and Technicians Labour Market project), are clustered in the Lower Mainland, this could leave the North with a serious, and seriously detrimental, labour shortage. As both a working engineer with his own consulting business and a Prince George city councillor, Dr. Albert Koehler, P.Eng., has spent more than 20 years working to bring engineering training to the North. “I know from my own company that if you hire an engineer from the South, they experience the winter here for the first time and they go back. And bringing in consultants from the South on temporary contracts is very expensive. Beyond that, we don’t want to lose our young people. Communities here are shrinking. We need to train and keep the people here who can help us build a strong, diversified economy.” UNBC currently offers a joint environmental engineering bachelor’s degree in partnership with UBC. Students complete their first two years at UNBC, transit to UBC for their third and fourth years, then return to UNBC for a final term focusing on applied environmental engineering design problems. They receive a degree with the names of both institutions on it. According to Whitcombe, “It’s been a very attractive option for about half of our engineering students,” many of whom decide to

look for work in the South after studying there, “but the other half would prefer to complete their [entire] education here. A lot of our current students come out of the North, but even more come out of rural BC—Vancouver Island, Sechelt, et cetera. These are the students not interested in the big cities. There is a certain amount of prestige being associated with UBC, but there is also the housing issue, commuting, traffic, and large classes. We offer small classes and closer relationships between students and staff. If you like that, and especially if you come from here or from rural BC, then you probably want to finish here.” The new provincial funding will allow UNBC to expand its environmental engineering program to two streams of 35 students each (from one stream of 35 now) beginning in 2019. One stream will transit to UBC after two years, while the other will remain at UNBC. Also in 2019, UNBC will welcome its first cohort of 35 civil engineering students. They will complete their entire program at the institution. All three streams will have a T op : Entrance to the main College of NewCaledonia building, located in Prince George, British Columbia. P hoto : T hink N athan /W ikimedia C ommons CC BY 3.0 UNBC Environmental Engineering graduate Kosta Sainis works as a professional engineer in northern BC. Newengineering programs will allowmore students to receive their full undergraduate engineering education in the North. P hoto : UNBC.

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