Thank you, Chair.
I want to extend my personal thanks to all of you for being here.
This is a very useful session. I've met some of you in the past through our Conservative post-secondary caucus and in our travels across the country. We've been right across the country now and have visited probably somewhere north of 30 post-secondary institutions, including many colleges, polytechnics, and universities.
Our last journey took us to Alberta, and we ended up at Olds College to start. Then we went on to Red Deer College and visited at the University of Alberta. What's unique and what I want to get comments on from all the members here is the recognition of what I think Mr. Knight was talking about and what I think was referred to by Mr. O'Heron, and that is the need for all levels of post-secondary to be working together to create those pathways and those pathway careers that haven't traditionally existed.
Let's call it what it has been. Institutions have operated in somewhat of a silo mentality in a lot of ways, and I think breaking down those barriers is one of the most encouraging things. Every time we have done these one-day tours across the country, we have come away actually very optimistic, very buoyed by the fact that the changes are happening. I compliment you all for working together on those.
Mr. Knight, you talked about us having the resources in this country and needing to do outreach to those who are marginalized and such. I think there are creative ways in which institutions working together can do this job through redeploying resources they might have been using for other things. In my view, there doesn't necessarily need to be all new funding to solve the problems or to create the new generation of institution that looks at those who are marginalized and opens its arms to them and says, “Come in and be educated and be transformed and be all those things that education can help you be”.
I want to focus on Olds College. While having a population of only about 8,000, Olds, Alberta, is unique in the way it embraces post-secondary education right from the time the student starts kindergarten. On its campus now it has incorporated its high school. When a new high school needed to be built, it was built on the Olds College campus.
With regard to the barrier to bringing in public sector money, Olds has created a theatre funded by the community. You probably know about Olds College. When I returned from Olds College, I thought, yes, that works in a community of 8,000.
How do we take the learning and the take-aways from that and apply them to breaking the barriers down? When I go to Red Deer, I see a lot of the things you've talked about, such as working with private sector and having initiatives to get out and actually do the research for the private sector SMEs that can't afford to do it. There are many good things happening across this country. It's a very exciting time, and I'm sure you're noticing that.
Given that frame of reference, what do you see as some of the things that can do that? Let's face it: the challenge will be finding new money at both the provincial and the federal level. How can we look at existing resources, redeploy them, break down barriers, and let the kids who are going into grade 9 in their community see and feel what it means to go beyond grade 12? It used to be grade 13 in my province until they did away with it a couple of years ago. What a great motivation for them to be there and for the community college to be interacting with them.
How do we do these things? I think educators and the post-secondary presidents and their management teams, their whole teams, are working on these things. We are breaking down those barriers.
Taking those thoughts, I'll throw it over to you now and ask for your views on how we can continue to keep this momentum going.