Letters to the Editor: Feb. 29, 2020

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Ontario takes huge step in improving health-care education

The Ontario government’s recent decision to allow colleges to offer stand-alone bachelor of science in nursing degrees marks an important evolution in health-care education.

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For the past 20 years, colleges offering a B.Sc.N. were required to find a university partner to help deliver the program, as colleges weren’t offering degrees when the decision was made requiring registered nurses to have a degree rather than a diploma.

So much has changed since then.

Many colleges now offer four-year honours degree programs in a range of specialized areas, from interior design to business administration, robotics and our own behavioural psychology program. Independent research has confirmed that graduates of these programs are very successful.

With so many colleges fully capable of delivering the B.Sc.N. program on their own, this expansion of opportunities for students makes perfect sense for Ontario.

St. Lawrence College is a perfect example.

While St. Lawrence currently partners with Laurentian University in Sudbury, the entire four-year curriculum is delivered at our three campuses in Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall.

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But that’s really the point.

St. Lawrence already demonstrates it can deliver the full program. It only makes sense that St. Lawrence should be allowed to award the honours degrees to graduates. Our college has a long and proud history of delivering excellent nursing education. Offering the B.Sc.N. means our students can earn their degree in an environment built around practical education, with small classes, and a commitment to our communities.

The government’s decision isn’t a one-size-fits-all policy that must be applied the same way at every post-secondary institution. With this new model, the government is ensuring local needs can be addressed and that new pathways and connections for education can be formed.

Some colleges and universities are in partnerships that work well, and they may wish to continue those partnerships. The government’s decision allows for that.

But in cases where colleges and their students want the college to offer independent nursing degrees, this new policy is a tremendous improvement. It’s a win for students, post-secondary education and health-care delivery throughout our region, and Ontario.

Glenn Vollebregt 

President and CEO, St. Lawrence College 

Prison have good stories, too

Millhaven incident, Collins Bay lockdown, inmate needle exchange — all news articles in recent weeks. This almost-exclusive negative news about Correctional Service Canada creates at least three problems.

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First, it conveys to the public that the correctional service has failed; that inmates to be released will be no better citizens than when first incarcerated. This is false.

Second, when positive stories are not told, this makes it difficult for the correctional service to initiate new inmate volunteer work projects, which help inmates contribute to their redemption and help the community.

Third, news about volunteer work that inmates do helps the community see a balanced picture of inmates and success in the correctional service.

Kingston had Frontenac and Pittsburgh minimum-security institutions, but there was a third stand-alone minimum in Muskoka: Beaver Creek. Muskoka papers didn’t have alarming stories of medium or maximum security to report. They reported the negative stories but also the many positive interactions of inmates, staff and volunteers with the community — stories of inmates maintaining community skating rinks, growing community food bank gardens, building children’s playgrounds and maintaining parks. Last spring, 80 inmate volunteers filled thousands of sandbags, with 140 tonnes of sand to help protect citizens’ property from flooding, as opposed to stealing their property.

Kingston is impoverished by not hearing the positive side of the correctional service. This was one reason for writing The Inside Out Prison: The Story of Beaver Creek Minimum Security Institution,a story of how the relationships in the correctional service make us all safer.

Charles Stickel

Kingston

Is UN Council seat worth it?

Our free-spending prime minister is desperately pursuing a seat on the UN Security Council and has spent well over $2 million taxpayer dollars in his quest. Why?

What difference would Canada make in our country or the world when the powerful council member countries have veto rights over all important decisions? Is this another of Trudeau’s ego trips? He was in Africa trying to convince a couple of African countries to support his bid while Canada was struggling at home with far more important issues.

Dick Dodds

Napanee