I was asked recently, as part of a Canada 150 initiative, about my favourite place in our country. I’d liken this deliberation to the impossible conundrum of choosing a favourite child.
For the record, I’m grateful that many of my favourite places are here in B.C. and our internationally recognized West Coast region is my home.
Canada 150 created a framework to celebrate our home and its people. With a few exceptions, we are a nation and province of reason, thoughtfulness and fairness – a haven of common sense in a world where good sense feels increasingly less common. Because of this, Canadians – including British Columbians – are respected and trusted internationally.
While there were and are many reasons to bask in the celebrations of our 150th birthday and proudly acknowledge our strengths, we must also address and lean in on some significant challenges.
These include reconciliation with our First Peoples who’ve rightly called this land home for countless years; providing youth and mental health services and access to affordable housing for our next generation; and creating educational pathways to support both our current and future workforce in this rapidly advancing age of automation.
And – key to any list coming out of 2017 – we must take a hard look at sexual misconduct, assault and violence so the brave voices of #MeToo have continued resonance. I believe, working together, we can all raise the bar of accepted conduct to prevent and address this societal scourge.
This list may seem daunting, but delivering effective applied education is the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s mandate and key to our future success, so I’ll start there. Public- and private-sector leaders are collaborating and innovating to help people whose jobs will be displaced by automation successfully transition to sustainable, self-supporting new positions and careers. Our current and future workforce must adapt to the constantly changing nature of work unfolding in all sectors including health care, construction, environment, resources, energy and business, to name a few.
Multi-year educational endeavours are increasingly unrealistic for people with high rent or mortgages to pay and families to feed. BCIT is responding with flexible, accessible education and training options, aligned with students’ and employers’ needs. And we don’t do this alone: we are working with post-secondary and industry partners to expand and enhance collaborative programs and students’ access to them.
As we embrace a new year it should go without saying, but bears repeating, that more mental health and support services are needed for all students, including Indigenous and international. I believe one of the most effective ways we can help youth is through applied education that instils the soft and hard skills – and confidence – to empower them to make a meaningful contribution to our provincial economy and world.
BCIT will continue to educate students of all life stages while reimagining our Burnaby campus as a community where solutions to our most urgent challenges are discovered, tested and readied for the world. This renewal is about much more than buildings. It’s about innovation, delivering an effective learning and teaching model that embraces new technologies, and investment in our people. With the incredible passion and drive of our faculty and staff, I’m confident we will continue to contribute significantly to B.C.’s economy and communities.
Finally, as we welcome 2018, I’m reminded that we are only three years away from celebrating British Columbia’s own 150th anniversary of joining Confederation. Let’s ask ourselves: what have we nurtured and what seeds can we sow now to showcase and celebrate this most beautiful and livable province in 2021?•
Kathy Kinloch is president of the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
