Premier breaks silence on CBU's BEd

On February 14, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald finally broke his silence on the education review panel’s report and recommendations. It was his first official statement on the matter since the report’s release on January 16 and it was long overdue. His statement came the day after his education minister, Karen Casey, met with John Harker, CBU President.

During the meeting between Harker and Casey, Casey received a mammoth dossier that was full of letters, petitions and media coverage that supported CBU’s push for their own bachelor of education program. Harker also outlined the university’s arguments for their own BEd: the province must look beyond the status quo, improve equity and access to education and that a BEd at CBU would help with Nova Scotia’s economic development.

After their meeting, Harker was quoted in the Cape Breton Post saying, “We had a pleasant and a useful opportunity to ensure that our views are very clearly understood.” According to President Harker, Minister Casey “got it”. However, we will not know for certain until sometime in March when Minister Casey makes her decision.

The next day, Premier MacDonald said, “I have no intention, as premier, to ever see that program [CBU’s joint program with MUN] leave Cape Breton University,” he added that, “I have no problem with the current situation.” However, the premier was not as supportive of CBU’s push for their own bachelor of education program.

So, even though granting CBU their own bachelor of education program would most likely mean that CBU would phase out their program with MUN, he is okay with the MUN program at CBU and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that leave the province under that agreement, but he is not okay with CBU starting their own BEd program that would keep all those thousands of dollars within Nova Scotia’s economy.

The premier has “no problem” with CBU’s current arrangement because it does not disrupt the status quo, something his government seems completely dedicated to maintaining.

In response to the premier, President Harker said, “We have a premier from on the island and I would hope that he soon says, ‘Let’s not have a Halifax centred approach to this.’” To deny this would deny that the province is not developed around an urban core and that the benefits of the core are expected to spread from the centre to the periphery, something the province has tried to do with Halifax. But, for some reason, the premier did just that.

“To suggest this is a Halifax-centred approach, and that’s unfair to say that, he knows, and all presidents know that we did not put forward the report,” said Premier MacDonald. Of course Mr. Premier, this had nothing to do with you or your government, it just happened to be the recommendation of a panel hand picked and appointed by your education minister.

I believed it from day one and this quote from the premier continued to re-enforce my belief that the panel was nothing more than a feeble attempt to distance the government from a decision they knew would end up being politically problematic. His attempt to distance himself (and his government) from the panel’s decision was the only smart thing he has done during the whole review process.

The initial public response to the panel’s report was outrage and for close to one month the premier, the leader of this province, said nothing. Opposition leaders, public figures and academics spoke out and, finally, one month later he decided to break his silence by re-affirming his support for the status quo and shot back to a criticism with “not fair”.

The premier needs to do his Cape Breton MLA’s a favour and diffuse this issue. If he fails to do so, his MLAs will become the target for Cape Breton’s collective rage the next time we step into a voting booth.