With Portage College this week announcing it would not be renewing its lease at the Centennial Centre, Bonnyville faces the very real possibility of starting the next school year without post-secondary programming in the community for the first time in 20 years.
Yes, believe it or not, that is how long an institution many claim has never really been interested in building on its Bonnyville roots, has had an influence on the local area.
In recent times, that influence has been heavily reduced, to the point that the college today offers only a handful of programs out of the two rooms it has at the C2.
So what went wrong? When the Centennial Centre was first opened in 2007, it did so with an understanding that Portage College would be a staple in the impressive facility for years to come. That belief was obviously shared by both the federal and provincial governments of the time, with each providing eye-watering sums of money to ensure the facility become one of education on top of recreation.
The big issue for Bonnyville is that Portage College decided to partner up with Cold Lake and take up a large portion of the brand new Energy Centre when it was constructed in ____. ____ years on and Portage's Cold Lake campus is second to only Lac La Biche in terms of size and importance. For the past two years, Bonnyville has easily been the smallest of the institution's eight facilities.
When the decision was made back in 2013 to heavily cut back on programming in Bonnyville, Portage re-distributed many of those programs to Cold Lake. It is expected to do the same with the few programs that remain in the community come September.
It's a shame the institution never really considered Bonnyville as a viable option for investment, as the community itself has a lot of potential when it comes to housing a post-secondary facility. With schools throughout the region becoming more and more involved with dynamic, hands-on learning techniques and programming, there may one day become a time when Bonnyville absolutely needs an institution ready to offer post-secondary programming in the community.
Here's hoping the Town and MD of Bonnyville are one day able to follow through with their promise of finding a suitable post-secondary replacement for the disappointment known as Portage College.
