CNC lobbying to expand heavy duty mechanic program

The College of New Caledonia is lobbying the provincial government to expand it’s heavy duty mechanic program.

CNC President Henry Reiser says they currently have a two year wait list. “Historically it’s been a high demand program, it’s very well received, we have outstanding faculty in this area and this is a program that people come from great distances to study at.”

Reiser says the program’s home of Nicholson Street is creating a bottleneck, due to a lack of space.

“We have a proposal before government now for $14 million to expand our tech centre.”

He says the new building would increase the current footprint from 12.3 square metres per student to the ITA standard of 25 metres squared. That expansion would increase the overall program capacity by 30%.

“The current space we are in is very crowded and is very difficult to teach in, so there is some saefty issues as well that need to be considered.”

MLA Shirley Bond says she has looked at the proposal and is on board with the plan.

“I have discussed this project with the Minister of Advanced Education, we are going to continue to make our case. I think we have a strong case, I’m cautiously optimistic that we can see some movement on this in the not too distant future.”

Both Bond and Reiser acknowledge that there is more work to be done on the file, but Bond says she will be pressing the issue with the province.

“We want to see these wait lists reduced, and certainly an expansion would be one way to do that.”