The Town of Bonnyville received notice that Portage College intends to vacate the C2 and move its classes to Cold Lake.
Mayor of Bonnyville Gene Sobolewski, says the notice to vacate came as a surprise to the town, “this is the second go around we’ve had with Portage and this whole pulling up stakes and moving elsewhere, so the town was quite blindsided and quite upset with the way this whole thing was handled.”
Mayor Sobolewski says the town plans on approaching the Minister of Education to ask that another accredited post-secondary school be permitted to teach in Bonnyville. Alberta has set up regions and allows certain college’s to hold territory in certain regions. Bonnyville falls under Portage College’s territory. However, with the college voluntarily moving out of town, Bonnyville council is hoping that another college, such as Lakeland College or NAIT will be able to use the space and equipment available so the programming is still available in Bonnyville.
Mayor Sobolewski says the electrical training equipment ” is owned by the town s quite a step up, it’s just a matter of being able to align ourselves with someone who is able to provide an accredited electrical course.”