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Municipal leaders meet with new AU president

Employment concerns raised during meeting with new AU president Peter Scott
BALAYrobert_Councillor_Town of Athabasca_FILE_WEB
Town of Athabasca mayor Rob Balay and Athabasca County reeve Brian Hall met recently with new Athabasca University president Peter Scott to introduce themselves and bring forward their concerns about the economic impacts on the region of AU going to their near virtual model. File

ATHABASCA — Two local leaders met with the new Athabasca University (AU) president to get to know each other a bit better and to bring forward local concerns of the university moving jobs out of the region. 

Both during his Feb. 16 monthly live-stream interview on Town Talk LIVE! with the Athabasca Advocate and later in the evening at the Athabasca District Chamber of Commerce AGM, Athabasca mayor Rob Balay discussed the meeting with Dr. Peter Scott and going forward. 

“Both myself and (Athabasca County) reeve Brian Hall requested to meet the new president and part of that was to just welcome him to the community and to get to know him,” Balay said. “We did talk about some of the issues with Athabasca University and actually, he was very genuine, my first impression was good so, we’ll see how things go.” 

Balay said Scott was knowledgeable about what has been going on and seemed hopeful a resolution could be reached. 

“He has been in Athabasca and seen all the facilities and he’s very aware of the economic impact and how it can affect our community and the possibility of the slow bleed in jobs, and he realizes that, and he also thinks there are ways we can work together to mitigate that so, I’m eager to see what those ways are,” he said. 

Balay added there are some meetings arranged for later this month with AU and the Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides to continue the conversation of keeping jobs at the physical buildings in Athabasca. 

“We’ll be meeting with the DM (deputy minister Lora Pillipow) as well and her assistants so we’re looking forward to seeing where that goes,” he said. 

And while it will take several meetings between all parties, Balay said he is ready for the work ahead. 

“Nothing concrete as yet, just to meet and see if we can come to a resolution both where the university is being served as advancing their Imagine plan and yet still meeting the economic and employment needs in Athabasca, that's our goal,” said Balay. 

Municipal leaders have also been speaking to other ministers in the UCP government like Municipal Affairs minister Ric McIver, Minister of Finance Travis Toews, Minister of Labour and Immigration Tyler Shandro, MLA for Morinville-St. Albert Dale Nally, Associate Minister of Status of Women Whitney Issik and Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken. 

“We've planned to speak with Brian Jean as well and we'll also have an opportunity to speak at the MLA Northern Caucus meetings to bring forward our campaign,” he said. “And though the government was initially unaware of the significant impact that AU’s near virtual abandonment of the Athabasca campus would have on our community and the political message that was sent to rural Albertans, Premier Kenney's government is now cognizant of the negative effects of this.” 

Balay told the Athabasca chamber group that they don’t want to impede AU from growing if some of the staff keep working in Athabasca. 

“We want them to grow, and our stance is that if they want to grow to 100,000 students or 200,000 students and have 10,000 employees, we’re fine with them having those 10,000 employees, 9,500 of them working from home, but our stance is the other 500 should be core and in our community, and in the facilities that are there, and that’s what we’re pushing for.” 

He noted since the Keep Athabasca in Athabasca University (KAAU) campaign started between the two municipalities $45,000 has been donated and public donations have totalled over $25,000. 

“The university was put here for a reason, for rural economic sustainability and for rural employment,” Balay said. “And we're going to try our best to make sure that that happens. So, we're going to be asking for support, moral support, and possibly some more financial support over the next two or three months. 

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