Saskatchewan MP calling for northern university

Liberal MP Buckley Belanger is launching an exploratory process to look at creating a university for northern Saskatchewan, saying local access to higher education is needed to help train and keep professionals in the region.

Belanger, the MP for Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River and Secretary of State for Rural Development, was in Prince Albert on Friday and announced the formation of a committee. He stated the work will examine what it would take to establish a Northern Saskatchewan University.

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“Local university training in the north is a critical piece of what I think is a required infrastructure to build a new orth,” Belanger said.

The process is expected to begin in early fall and wrap up before the end of the year with a report outlining options, strategies and steps that would be needed to move ahead.

Belanger said too many northern students are forced to leave home and relocate to southern Saskatchewan to pursue university degrees, taking on extra costs and challenges in the process.

“Too often, northern students must leave their communities and take on an array of added costs and challenges relocating to the south to pursue university degrees,” he said.

“Finding a solution will be key to that work.”

Geordy McCaffrey, who Belanger said will help coordinate the exploratory work, brings more than 30 years of experience developing university opportunities for Indigenous and northern residents through the Gabriel Dumont Institute, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina.

McCaffrey said northern Saskatchewan currently has several institutions offering programming, but described the system as fragmented.

“When you look at the landscape of the North, we have about five different institutions operating there and it’s kind of an ad hoc approach to university training,” McCaffrey said. “There’s a program here, a program there, and there’s no continuity.”

McCaffrey said the committee will look at options and consult with northern and Indigenous leaders, industry, existing post-secondary institutions and other stakeholders. He said the work could include examining different models, such as affiliated or federated college structures, as possible first steps.

“We’re looking at options and the best options to meet northern needs,” McCaffrey said. “Other jurisdictions all have northern universities. Saskatchewan becomes one of those agencies that, for whatever reason, does not yet.”

Belanger said education will be central to his broader goal of changing how northern Saskatchewan is viewed, particularly as resource development continues in the region.

“We must create a University of Northern Saskatchewan. It is time,” Belanger said. “Every other northern jurisdiction across this country has one. Why can’t Northern Saskatchewan have one too?”

The lack of a dedicated university is leading to issues like a dire lack of trained teachers in primary and secondary education along with the chronic shortage of health professionals.

Belanger said he has names in mind for the remainder of the committee, which will begin it’s work this fall. Once they start, they hope to release initial findings in about 90 days.

Read more:

• U of R students settle in as hundreds arrive for Move-In Day
• U of S synchrotron getting $3 million upgrade from Innovation Sask.
• ‘Living document’: 150 years of Treaty 6 marked with historic, future considerations