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The NORTEP program had more than 400 graduates. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)
provincial election

New North calls for restoration of NORTEP in 2020 provincial election wish list

Oct 14, 2020 | 2:52 PM

New North is calling for the reinstatement of the Northern Teacher Education Program (NORTEP) as part of its 2020 provincial election wish list.

“That was such a great program for northern people,” New North Chairperson and Creighton Mayor Bruce Fidler said in an interview with larongeNOW. “If young people wanted to get an education and become a teacher but could not necessarily afford to go to the larger centres like Saskatoon or Regina for university. To have that program in the north in different areas, was such a benefit. We’ve lost a really good program and it should definitely be brought back into place.”

The last graduating class for NORTEP, and its counterpart Northern Professional Access Program, was held April 2018. It was established in 1976 and designed to address the shortage of teachers in northern Saskatchewan. In all, more than 400 students graduated from the program with close to 90 per cent choosing to teach in the region.

The entire New North wish list consists of nine points in categories including physical and mental health, economic and social development, highways and infrastructure, and education. One of the main points is the creation of a Co-operative Centre for Developing Northern Saskatchewan to link industry, businesses, communities and universities with a grant process to speed innovations in healthcare, administration and governance and economic development in northern Saskatchewan.

“We put out quite an extensive wish list so to say,” Fidler said. “It covers quite a wide variety of topics, but it just goes to show we’ve been ignored for a long time. The province needs to start paying more attention and putting some more effort into developing and listening to the people of northern Saskatchewan.”

Other items on the wish list include a recruitment drive to fill vacancies in addictions, mental health and allied health positions, the expansion of alcohol management program, and a northern-specific funding component to the Cognitive Disabilities Strategy.

The wish list also outlines a Northern Economic Development taskforce for job creation initiatives, which could include support to engage more fully in forestry, housing construction, tourism, communications and mine services. New North estimates unemployment to be at 24 per cent in northern Saskatchewan with the rate as high as 40 to 60 per cent in some communities.

“There’s a lot of resources in northern Saskatchewan,” Fidler said. “There’s a lot of very educated, specialized labour force and we need to develop the North.”

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno

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