By Keith Leslie

TORONTO — Two publicly funded Ontario colleges have opened campuses in Saudi Arabia that don’t allow female students in classes, but the province’s minister of post-secondary education says he doesn’t have any concerns about it.

Niagara College offers tourism, hospitality and business courses at its campus in Taif, and Algonquin College offers 10 programs, including business, accounting and electrical engineering technology, at a campus in the city of Jazan.

In addition, Toronto-based Centennial College offers a corporate training program for men only in Saudi Arabia.

The Ontario campuses in Saudi Arabia, and all educational programs in the kingdom, operate under Sharia law and prohibit the education of men and women in the same classes.

Colleges and Universities Minister Reza Moridi said decisions on the operation of a campus, including student composition, are up to each college’s board of governors.

“I understand and appreciate the perspectives that have been raised in recent weeks about these educational activities,” Moridi said in a statement to The Canadian Press.

“I am proud of the advancements that Ontario’s colleges are making in bringing our high-quality programming around the world.”

The government provides $1.4 billion in funding to 24 community colleges in the province, which accounts for only about 40 per cent of their budgets. They get the rest of the money from tuition fees and other sources.

“They’re desperate for ways to generate some dollars,” said NDP post-secondary critic Peggy Sattler. “But we shouldn’t have Ontario colleges partnering with repressive regimes that have a history of gender-based violence.”

Related

• Algonquin's Saudi Arabian campus isn't the only foreign college losing money in the kingdom
• Is Algonquin helping improve human rights in Saudi Arabia?

Algonquin College announced in 2013 that it hoped to have 2,000 students at its campus in Saudi Arabia and expected to generate annual revenues of more than $25 million. But a spokesman for the Ottawa-based college refused Thursday to provide any update on the school’s operations.

“We have no new information to provide other than what is already publicly available,” Phil Gaudreau said in an email.

Niagara College said opening a Saudi campus was an opportunity to expand access to education there and enhance its own reputation, and it expects to generate $4 million over five years from its classes in Taif.

“The campus opportunity that most closely aligns with our key areas of specialization is the campus with a hospitality and tourism focus,” said college spokeswoman Susan McConnell. “This campus provides education to male students.”

The Ontario Public Sector Employees Union calls the establishment of the Canadian campuses in Saudi Arabia an endorsement of discrimination against women.

“The Wynne government’s shameful neglect and underfunding of its 24 community colleges has forced them to seek alternative sources of funding, even to making deals with a country that carries out mass executions as a means of stifling democracy,” said OPSEU president Smokey Thomas.

“For a government that claims it wants to close the wage gap between men and women, it’s highly problematic that it won’t allow women into two of its colleges.”

The controversy comes as the federal government faces pressure to kill a $15-billion sale of Ontario-made LAV3 vehicles to the Saudi kingdom.

The sale came under fire after the Saudi’s executed 47 alleged terrorists Jan. 1, but the Trudeau government says it won’t cancel the deal made by the previous Conservative administration.

— Follow @CPnewsboy on Twitter

TORONTO – Premier Kathleen Wynne says it is unacceptable to her that two Ontario colleges are operating campuses in Saudi Arabia that don’t admit women students.

Niagara College and Ottawa-based Algonquin College have been operating men-only campuses for a couple of years in two cities in Saudi Arabia, where Sharia law forbids the education of women and men in the same classes.

Colleges and Universities Minister Reza Moridi, who had earlier said it was up to colleges to determine the student makeup on their campuses, said Thursday he was concerned that women were excluded from the Ontario-run campuses.

Wynne says she told Moridi to meet with the two colleges as soon as she found out about the situation, which she says has “got to change.”

Progressive Conservative critic John Yakabuski calls it a “stretch” for Wynne not to have known Ontario colleges are excluding women from their Saudi campuses, and says she’s only expressing concern because the media picked up the story.

Ontario provides $1.44 billion in funding to its 24 community colleges, with Algonquin getting $103 million for the current fiscal year, while Niagara College received $45 million.

– The Canadian Press

The union that represents about 800 Algonquin College faculty members says it repeatedly tried to draw Premier Kathleen Wynne’s attention to the fact the college was running a men-only campus in Saudi Arabia. 

Jack Wilson, first vice-president of OPSEU 415, said the union has been concerned about the college doing business with a country “that has no respect for human rights” and flagged its concerns to Wynne’s office.

“We’ve been hammering at this for almost two years. It seemed to suddenly erupt in the Toronto media. That finally got the premier’s attention,” said Wilson.

On Friday, Wynne told reporters it’s “unacceptable” to her if women weren’t offered programs. Both Niagara and Algonquin College have been contacted by Colleges and Universities Minister Reza Moridi, she said.

The two campuses were set up under Saudi Arabia’s so-called colleges of excellence program, which operates under Sharia law and prohibits men and women from being in the same classes.

Moridi said earlier that it was up to the colleges’ boards of governors to determine staffing and student composition on their campuses. On Thursday, Moridi said he was concerned that women were excluded.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Wynne said she understood that there was discussion about women having access when the colleges were setting up. If women don’t have access “then I think there’s another conversation that has to be had with both Niagara and Algonquin,” she said.

“My position is that if we are going to be engaged in the delivery of education in other parts of the world, then men and women must have equal access. That is, I think, a minimum that we can expect in 2016.”

In a written statement released Friday afternoon, Algonquin president Cheryl Jensen said she has had a “positive conversation” with Moridi. She added that the college wanted to open a women-only college in Saudi Arabia, but failed to win the bid. 

“We are seeking clarification around the premier’s comments and will have more to say on this topic when we have that clarification.”

Algonquin did not respond to repeated requests for an interview with Jensen.

In her statement, Jensen said Algonquin has been open and transparent about its work in Saudi Arabia, announcing each new step and providing regular updates to its board and to the Ontario government.

Wynne said she asked questions as soon as she found out that the campuses were men-only. But Wilson says that claim is “disingenuous.”

“Her government has pushed the colleges to move in more entrepreneurial directions because they won’t properly fund the community college system.”

Wilson said the issue came to his attention when he attended a board of governors meeting almost three years ago and heard a proposal to establish a millwright program in Saudi Arabia. A member of the board asked if it would be a men-only program and there was “an awkward silence around the room,” he said.

Jensen’s statement said Algonquin College has been engaged in international activity with partner institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East since 2004. The college began working with the government of Saudi Arabia through a campus in the city of Jazan in 2009. In 2013, Algonquin and other education providers from around the world submitted bids to operate separate campuses for men and women for five-year terms, she said. The Jazan campus was rebranded as Algonquin College.

The Saudi government later opened up bidding for more colleges, but Algonquin was not successful in obtaining a women’s college. The government of Saudi Arabia has opened 18 all-female and 19 all-male colleges and Algonquin is exploring options to open a female campus in the future, said Jensen.

Wilson agrees with Jensen that Algonquin has been transparent about the process. The news that Algonquin was running a men-only campus should come as no surprise to either the ministry or the premier, he said. 

“My problem is I don’t think we should be supportive of segregated education,” he said. “People should be mindful of human rights abuses.”

— With files from The Canadian Press

Algonquin College appears to be violating its own hiring equity policy by not employing women at its controversial men-only campus in Saudi Arabia.

The college’s website declares the school is an “equal opportunity employer” that “values diversity and is committed to the principles found in the Ontario Human Rights Code,” which prohibits discrimination in hiring on the basis of sex.

However, Algonquin’s trade college in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, follows the Middle Eastern country’s practice of sex-segregated education, which extends to professors as well as students.

Algonquin officials did not respond Monday to questions about the apparent discrepancy between the college’s equity policy and the practice at Jazan, saying the college would make a statement on Tuesday. But in recent interviews, Algonquin officials suggest they will open a women-only college in Saudi Arabia as well. 

“Change is not going to happen overnight,” said Algonquin president Cheryl Jensen in a recent interview. “But certainly having a male campus and a female campus will help further to change the expectations of how education is delivered.”

Algonquin has already made two bids for women-only colleges in Saudi Arabia that didn’t work out, and officials are investigating another possibility now.

Opening a women-only college would not solve the problem, said Algonquin professor Jack Wilson, a representative of the faculty union, which has called on Algonquin to get out of Saudi Arabia.

Algonquin would never condone discrimination in hiring at home, and the college should not tolerate it at a foreign campus either, he said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate under any circumstances.” If Algonquin restricted hiring by race, there would be an uproar, he said. “So I’m troubled by the fact that we wouldn’t discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity, so why, when it comes to gender, are we prepared to make that distinction?”

The legal issues aren’t clear. 

While Algonquin says it’s committed to the principles of the Ontario Human Rights Code, whether that law would apply to its campus in Saudi Arabia is a question that Human Rights Commission staff can’t answer.

“Does the (Ontario) Human Rights Code apply? We just don’t know,” said spokesperson Jeff Poirier, who said Commission staff could find no policy or ruling that would shed light on the matter. “It’s kind of novel for us. We aren’t aware of any cases where the tribunal has addressed this kind of situation.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne suggested last week that she didn’t realize both Algonquin and Niagara College were operating men-only campuses in Saudi Arabia, which she called “unacceptable”. If women are not allowed in those programs, “that’s got to change,” she said. “My position is that if we are going to be engaged in the delivery of education in other parts of the world, then men and women must have equal access.”

A spokeswoman for the premier said Monday that Wynne’s concerns extend to hiring at the Saudi campuses. “Whether it is the make-up of the student body or the employees, both the premier and (Reza Moridi, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities) have been clear that they are concerned about Algonquin having a male-only campus and not a female campus, that they find this current state of affairs unacceptable and that there are active conversations happening with the College to remedy this situation,” said press secretary Jennifer Beaudry in a statement.

Moridi acknowledged Monday that Ontario allowed the creation of the two Saudi campuses. The province’s responsibility was to approve the financial plans, but it was up to the colleges to determine who was admitted, said Moridi. However, a “gap” in that approval process will be closed, he said. The decision to approve the colleges was made under a previous minister, he said.

John Milloy, who was the college’s minister from 2007 to 2011, says he doesn’t remember any discussion about the Saudi campuses excluding women from classes.

“I do not ever recall any talk of a male-only campus,” Milloy, now an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, said in an email to The Canadian Press.

– With files from the Canadian Press

Algonquin College operates a male-only campus in Saudi Arabia because that’s the religious custom in the Middle Eastern country, say college officials.

Algonquin has been “open and transparent” about the campus it opened in Jazan, Saudi Arabia in 2013, which was approved by the Ontario government, said information posted on the college’s website.

It’s the first substantial rejoinder from Algonquin officials since a controversy erupted last week over the male-only institutions operated by Algonquin and Niagara College in Saudi Arabia. 

Premier Kathleen Wynne, who apparently was unaware of the campuses, says it’s “unacceptable” the programs are not open to women, and has asked Ontario Colleges and Universities Minister Reza Moridi to investigate.

Moridi, who initially said it was up to the colleges to determine what programs they offered abroad, then said he was concerned, too, and that a broad discussion is now needed between the colleges and the government to “make sure that our internationalization policy will be based on the norms and the culture which we follow.”

Algonquin President Cheryl Jensen was to meet with Moridi’s deputy minister on Tuesday. The chair of Algonquin’s board, Kathryn Leroux, said she would comment further once it was clear what direction the ministry suggests.

In its web posting, Algonquin officials repeated a pledge to explore opening a female campus in Saudi Arabia and reiterated their argument that it’s better to engage with Saudi Arabia than to isolate the country.

Moridi’s office said it’s working with Algonquin to secure approval to operate a women-only college in the country, but would not say whether Algonquin and Niagara Colleges would have to shut their operations in Saudi Arabia if that doesn’t happen.

Algonquin also released documents about its original bid for male and female colleges in 2013. Algonquin lost the bid for a female college, then withdrew another bid in 2014 that would have included a male and female college after the board of governors put a temporary hold on expansions in Saudi Arabia when it became clear that Jazan College was not meeting financial expectations.

Jazan College was supposed to make money for Algonquin, but it has struggled with students who aren’t prepared for the courses that Algonquin is contracted to deliver. Jazan made a profit of $79,000 in its first year, then lost $1.48 million in 2014-15. Algonquin says it still expects to make a profit on the five-year contract of $4.4 million.

Saudi Arabia has opened 18 female and 19 male colleges since 2013 as part of an effort to improve technical education in the country.

With a bare branch propped against the wall, a handcrafted woollen bird’s nest on the table and a diffuser on the floor misting the scent of sandalwood into the air, it’s clear this studio belongs to an artist who loves nature.

Nicole Allen of The Loft Artists Studio on Gladstone Avenue paints with colour and gusto: predominantly big flowers and big rocks, as well as small canvases of birds. Slender and fine featured, she in many ways, resembles the delicate birds she paints.

Raised by parents who encouraged her gift,  she found her thirst for painting at age five, when her dad, Don Moore, helped her paint a cardinal — a canvas that still hangs in her living room. Allen remembers painting side by side with her father — a chiropractor, talented hobby painter and avid fly fisherman — on their family’s dock at their Muskoka cottage. To this day, the rugged, textured landscapes of the picturesque wilderness north of Toronto speak to her.

Nicole Allen’s impressionistic painting are colourful and bold with subjects ranging from birds to delicate flowers.

“I am constantly inspired and intrigued by colour and the moods that certain combinations evoke,” says the mother of two who runs, practises yoga and enjoys drinking scotch with her husband on their balcony by the light of the moon.  “Technically, I am always striving for a balance of the organic line with the linear in my work, which is why my landscapes and florals tend to have a graphic feel.”

She describes herself as more of an intuitive and “quick” painter, vastly different from her dad’s more intellectual approach. “He has had a huge influence stylistically on me as he works quite freely and is very mindful of colour theory. His paintings filled the walls of our home growing up.”

Vibrant flowers, like these poppies, tend to appeal more to women.

Allen, 44,  grew up in Oakville, studied art history in Kingston at Queen’s University and then found her way to Victoria, B.C., where she worked in the art rental business.

She and her husband, Jeff Allen, who is a training consultant and Founder of Crimson Training Solutions Inc., moved to Ottawa in 1997 where she received an applied museum studies diploma at Algonquin College. With two young children, she continued crafting her painting skills by attending classes at the Ottawa School of Art. Today, Charlie is 15, and Sydney is 12, who according to Allen, “is also very artistic” while her husband provides the “muscle behind every art fair and show.

“I don’t remember not drawing or painting,” says Allen, who six years ago put her toe into the art market for the first time by participating in a small mixed show at Irene’s Pub on Bank Street. All of her paintings sold, prompting her to paint full time.

Allen’s art is luscious and bold; she achieves this effect by using acrylic paints in layers over charcoal, Conté and ink. Her impressionistic landscapes use colour fearlessly and, she says, appeal more to men, as do her giant canvases of crows or cardinals with attitude. Her floral still-life paintings, which are both blocky and delicate, are favourites with women. 

When I ask whether a painting of vibrant poppies seen from a bee’s vantage point, called Order in the Chaos, was inspired by her own garden, she laughs and emphatically says, “No.” She confesses her back garden in the Glebe is a “work in progress” since the construction of an infill next door displaced many of her plants. Instead, inspiration came from a photo in an old English gardening magazine. 

Giant paintings of birds and rugged landscapes tend to appeal more to men.

Surprised and delighted by her art success, Allen also seems unfazed by it. Gearing up for her third active year of painting and exhibiting, she realizes the vocation was always there.

I point to a painting with fluttering petals of white cosmos, and ask its name.  “We each have our own path,” she says with a smile.

Where to find Nicole Allen’s work

The Artist Project, Contemporary Art Fair, Feb. 18-21 at the Better Living Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto. www.theartistproject.com

Gallery Representation: Canvas Gallery, Toronto (www.canvasgallery.ca); in2art Gallery, Oakville www.in2artgallery.com

Bloomfield Flowers, 783 Bank St., Ottawa (www.bloomfields.ca)

Her website at www.nicoleallenart.com

Ailsa Francis blogs at hortus2.wordpress.com

Algonquin College’s board of governors will get an update on Monday about the college’s plans to open a college for women in Saudi Arabia in the same region where it operates a men’s campus. Algonquin’s intention to move ahead with the expansion comes as two foreign-run colleges in the kingdom were recently closed.

A business plan for a women’s college in Jazan will go to Algonquin’s executive team in March, according to a report posted online. Algonquin officials declined to give further details until Monday, when the board will consider the report.

Men-only colleges operated by both Algonquin and Niagara College in Saudi Arabia have come under fire in the past few weeks after Premier Kathleen Wynne said it was “unacceptable” that Ontario colleges operating abroad did not offer equal access to men and women.

Algonquin officials have defended their men’s college in Jazan by pointing out they always intended to open a women’s college, too.

Algonquin and other international bidders have won what were supposed to be lucrative contracts since 2013 to operate technical colleges in Saudi Arabia. But some of the 37 colleges have been struggling. 

Recently two of the three colleges in Saudi Arabia run by Lincoln College in the UK closed, a little more than a year after they opened in new buildings south of the capital of Riyadh. There weren’t enough students, says a notice posted on the website for the men’s and women’s colleges in Al-Aflaj. 

The Lincoln official responsible for the Saudi colleges, Simon Plummer, refused to comment. “Lincoln College International are not in a position to comment on decisions surrounding college closures made by third parties,” he said in an email. “I see no value in an interview with a Canadian media outlet when we are clearly a UK venture.”

Lincoln, a publicly funded college in northeast England, won the 250-million pound ($503 million Cdn) contract to open three colleges in Saudi Arabia in the spring of 2014. In a story posted on the Lincoln website, Plummer called it “fantastic news,” saying profits from the Saudi campuses would help campuses back home, and the contract affirmed Lincoln’s status as a “global leader” in vocational education.

The two Lincoln colleges in Al-Aflaj opened in the fall of 2014. They closed about a month ago, according to Ibtehal Al-Arjani, a business administration student who attended the women’s college. All of the teachers moved to the other women’s college that Lincoln operates in Saudi Arabia, along with the school’s furniture, she said. 

The British education company Pearson, which operated three colleges in Saudi Arabia, pulled out of the country last summer. Pearson officials have refused to comment. 

Algonquin’s Jazan College, in a rural area near the Yemen border, has also encountered problems since it opened in 2013. Attracting students hasn’t been a major issue, but many of those who arrived had poor English skills, were academically unprepared, did not attend class regularly and dropped out. Algonquin Jazan lost $1.48 million last year after earning a profit of $79,000 in its first year of operation.

Algonquin officials say they are working to solve the problems, and anticipate the college will still earn $4.4 million by the end of the five-year contract.

Opening a women’s college in Jazan “could mitigate risk and create economies of scale,” according to a report from Doug Wotherspoon, Algonquin’s vice-president in charge of international affairs. Having both a men’s and a women’s college might also make it easier to recruit staff, because a husband and wife might both be able to find employment, he said in an interview.

Ontario’s Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities seems to be on board with the idea of Algonquin opening a women’s college. 

Colleges Minister Reza Moridi has said he’s concerned that the Algonquin and Niagara campuses in Saudi Arabia are for men only. The minister is “having conversations to address the best way to pursue international activities moving forward,” according to a statement from his office. “Specifically, in the short-term, work includes conversations about Niagara and Algonquin opening women’s colleges in Saudi Arabia.”

 Niagara College does not operate a women’s college in Saudi Arabia, but it does provide education to women there. Niagara recently picked up a contract with the Chamber of Commerce in Taif to teach women English, said Sean Kennedy, Niagara’s vice-president international.

And Niagara officials are in “final discussions” with an existing women’s college in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, for a contract to help that college “improve a range of student services and outcomes,” said Kennedy.

Niagara has also faced challenges at the men’s-only college it opened in Taif in 2014, but Kennedy says they still expect to make a profit.

Niagara had planned to offer tourism and hospitality courses at Taif College, and was provided with a new hotel, buildings for stores to provide retail experience, a restaurant-quality kitchen and banquet hall. None of those facilities have been used yet, because there was not enough demand for tourism and hospitality courses, said Kennedy.

Instead, Taif College is offering a small-business management course, although officials hope to add hospitality courses later, he said.

Students at Taif also had a lower level of English proficiency and academic preparedness than expected. But similar to what’s being done at Jazan, teachers are adjusting programming, including switching to a teaching style that incorporates more hands-on learning.

Niagara adopted a conservative approach to Taif College, said Kennedy, and budgeted to lose about $700,000 during the first year of operation, which included start-up costs. The actual loss was $966,000 in the first year. The college is on track to earn about $250,000 this year, $1 million in Year 3, and $1.5 million in each of the final two years of the contract, he said.

 jmiller@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

Algonquin College officials will go through a multi-stage process before they propose opening a women’s college in Saudi Arabia, the board of governors was told Monday.

Staff are visiting other women’s colleges in the country now as part of a feasibility study, said Doug Wotherspoon, Algonquin’s vice-president international.

 Construction has begun on the building that will house a women’s college in Jazan, the same region where Algonquin operates its men’s college, said Wotherspoon in an interview. It’s not known, though, when the Saudi government will call for international bids to operate the college, he said. He may have more information at the board’s April or June meetings.

It was Wotherspoon’s first briefing to the Algonquin board since Premier Kathleen Wynne said it was unacceptable that Algonquin and Niagara Colleges run men’s colleges in Saudi Arabia, and that educational opportunities should be open to men and women.

Algonquin officials have responded by saying they always intended to open a women’s college, too. There were only a few passing references to the controversy at the meeting, including a comment by governor James Robblee that, “I think the storm is being weathered reasonably.”

Only governor Stephen Heckbert, who represents faculty, asked a question. He noted reports of other foreign operators of colleges in Saudi Arabia who have left the country quickly and unhappily. Britain’s Lincoln College recently shut two of the three colleges it operates in the kingdom, saying there weren’t enough students, and the British firm Pearson TQ left the country last summer with no public explanation.

Wotherspoon said he had not spoken to officials from Lincoln, but Pearson apparently left after not obtaining “what they anticipated getting out of the deal.” However, the three colleges once run by Pearson have been taken over by other foreign operators, he noted. “It’s a difficult environment.”

Wotherspoon said he meets quarterly to share information with the other groups that first won bids to operate colleges in Saudi Arabia in 2013 — a consortium of U.K. colleges, and education companies based in Spain and the U.S.

Attendance at Algonquin Jazan is improving dramatically this term, Wotherspoon said in the interview. Staff have adopted a “tough care” program to educate students about the importance of attendance, and offer counselling to those who miss classes, including calling in their parents. Algonquin’s payment from the Saudi government is tied to attendance rates of 80 per cent, but Jazan College has failed to meet that goal. There is not a high cultural value placed on school attendance, say Algonquin officials, and many students also arrive with poor English, math and study skills.

jmiller@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

Sam Gauvreau hopped on a plane for Saudi Arabia in 2011, looking for adventure and the opportunity to create a new college program. It was a daring leap for the self-described “meat and potatoes guy,” an electrician by trade who teaches an apprenticeship program at Algonquin College.

Gauvreau was the first Algonquin professor to teach at the campus in Jazan, Saudi Arabia that has recently been engulfed in controversy. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has demanded an investigation into why Algonquin runs a mens-only college, and the faculty union has called for the college to leave the Middle Eastern kingdom notorious for abusing the human rights of its citizens.

Gauvreau is not stepping into those ideological debates. But he can talk for hours about the spunky kids he met in Jazan and how the college helped them. He created an electrical engineering program at Jazan in 2011-12, then returned a year later for another stint after Algonquin took over the college.

Algonquin College took over operation of the campus in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, in 2013.

Gauvreau says his Saudi adventures made him a better teacher and a better person. He made friends, attended weddings and watched with pride as a dozen students received their engineering diplomas at a convocation in 2014. “The fathers were so proud. I don’t speak Arabic, but they were coming up to me, hugging me, big smiles, so grateful.”

Algonquin professor Sam Gauvreau with some of the graduates of Algonquin College Jazan at the convocation ceremony in 2014.

 Jazan is a rural, poor area near the border with Yemen. The teenagers who arrived at the college weren’t that different from the “farm kids” Gauvreau grew up with in Arnprior. Parents wanted the best for their children, but post-secondary school was not always a priority, and college was seen as a second choice.

“Where did the parents want their kids to go? University.” That attitude is changing in Jazan, as it is in Canada, he notes.

Many students had poor or no English, were weak in math, were not accustomed to homework and didn’t see the value in regularly attending class  — all factors that Algonquin officials cited later as reasons why the college is struggling. It lost $1.48 million last year.

Gauvreau says he’s a taxpayer, too and he understands why critics are concerned. But he believes the college should be given time to succeed. “Is there a value in it? Are we in this for the short term or are we there for the long haul?”

Teachers at Jazan are drawn from around the world and it can be challenging to recruit them.

There isn’t much to do socially in the town, drinking is not allowed, and unrelated men and women are not allowed to socialize. Even chatting with a woman in public, such as at the market, would be “crossing the line,” says Gauvreau. The “religious police” who enforce gender segregation can harass and arrest those who break the rules. 

In restaurants, there are separate areas for men and for “families.” Some stores and banks are gender segregated too, although Gauvreau saw some changes during the time he was there, such as a few women working as clerks at the mall. 

He was given a nice apartment in a highrise. But for teachers who had worked in other Persian Gulf states that offered luxury digs with “housekeepers, pools and palm trees,” it was modest. One new ESL teacher took one look at the apartment building in Jazan and said “drive me back to the airport,” said Gauvreau.

The apartment building in Jazan, Saudi Arabia where Algonquin College teacher Sam Gauvreau lived when he taught at Algonquin College Jazan.

Jazan College’s first principal lasted a few weeks before deciding it wasn’t for him, so Gauvreau took on the job in an acting capacity.

The students were respectful and people he met in Jazan were warm and hospitable, says Gauvreau. He was invited to friends’ houses for dinner, and enjoyed long chats with the male hosts about everything from religion to relationships. The men were curious about dating, and Gauvreau was curious about multiple wives. (One friend laughed at the question, saying he could in theory have several wives, but “my wife would kill me.”)

Gaudreau only ran afoul of the religious police once, in a restaurant. He was chatting with an Italian man, who called his teenage daughters over to join the conversation because they spoke English. Quickly, a religious police official broke up the gathering, saying the daughters must leave.

The Temperance Movement’s Phil Campbell was on the phone from Winnipeg, where he and his bandmates were taking in the full Canadian winter-tour experience, courtesy of their travelling companions in Monster Truck.

Due to a weak cell phone connection and Campbell’s broad accent, it was hard to tell exactly what they were up to on their day off, but catching their first NHL hockey game was definitely in the plans. It’s also safe to say they would be sampling the local beverages — judging by their social media, this Temperance Movement does not advocate scrimping on beer, vodka or tequila.

Whatever the activity, it would be a brief distraction from the mission at hand: Both the Canadian rockers in the Truck and their British brethren in the Movement are doing their best to resurrect old-school, meat-and-potatoes rock as they travel across the country together.

By the time they get to Ottawa, however, Temperance Movement will take on the challenge alone. Their show at Algonquin College’s Observatory Pub on Monday is a one-off that does not include Monster Truck.

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Of course, we know from the Movement’s incendiary set at Bluesfest last summer that rocking out will not be a problem. Between the punch of their debut album and the power of their live show, demonstrated during a string of festival dates and an opening gig for the Rolling Stones, the band has been able to make a significant splash in North America.

Along with acts like Monster Truck, Sheepdogs and Rival Sons, they’re part of a wave of proudly loud bands disproving the notion that rock n’ roll is withering away.

“The essence of the music is exciting,” says Campbell, whose gravel-tinged voice resists polishing efforts. “It’s still very much alive because it’s something that happens whenever four or five people play together. What happens is inspiration, it’s human instinct kicking in. That’s what rock ‘n’ roll is, and that’s what we love.”

The band’s latest album, White Bear, is a sprawling beast of a musical project, with songs ranging from all-out rockers like 3 Bulliets, Modern Massacre and Battle Lines to hippie-groove nuggets such as A Pleasant Place I Feel and Oh Lorraine. It’s a worthy follow-up to the band’s self-titled debut, and the first with new guitarist Matt White, who rounds out a lineup that also includes ex-Jamiroquai bassist Nick Fyffe, guitarist Paul Sayer and drummer Damon Wilson.

Campbell describes White as a good guy and brilliant player. “Matt has taken the band in a different direction,” he said. “He’s a new guy with a new guy’s ability and a new guy’s influences, and so the band has changed because of that. It’s cool.”

The influences the band lists on its Facebook page are heavy on late-’60s, early-’70s sounds, including The Band, Free, Little Feat, the Stones, Zeppelin, the Faces, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Tom Petty. Moving the style into the 21st century is a goal that’s attracting listeners young and old.  

“I was born in 1975 and I loved the music from that period because there’s an innocence to it,” says Campbell. “You can say it’s pure. The way people played instruments and the humanness of the music is something which will never die and will never stop inspiring me, even though recording and equipment and technology has changed a lot.”

Still, the best part is the time spent on stage together. “It’s the only thing,” Campbell says. “For us, that time is the highlight of the whole day. It’s when we can let loose and enjoy ourselves, and enjoy the thing that we do, which is play music.”

The Temperance Movement

When: Monday, March 7 at 8:30 p.m.

Where: Observatory Pub, Algonquin College, 1385 Woodroffe Ave.

Tickets: $13.50 ($8.50 for Algonquin students), available at ticketfly.com

Algonquin College is apologizing after accidentally sending out the results of more than 1,400 prospective students’ entry exams to a group of 40 of their peers Thursday.

Each of the students had applied to health programs, and had completed an entry exam known as an AC-HPAT test, according to a statement released by the college.

When the test results were emailed out, a spreadsheet containing all the results was accidentally sent to a group of 40 prospective students. Also contained in the emailed document were the names, email addresses, student numbers, program choices and test scores of 1,411 prospective students.

The college said none of the recipients of the accidental email would be able to use the information to impersonate any of the affected students.

The college said it recalled the unopened emails within an hour Thursday, and sent a message to all 40 recipients instructing them to delete the email if any had opened it. The college also said those affected by the slip have been notified.

“We regret this error and sincerely apologize to all affected,” said Laura Stanbra, vice-president of student services. “We are taking steps to ensure this does not happen again.”

Lawyer Michael Crystal, a partner with Ottawa-based Spiteri & Ursulak LLP, contacted Postmedia Thursday evening to say the firm is looking at the privacy breach as a potential class-action suit.

Any affected student with questions or concerns is asked to contact the college test centre at 613-727-4723 ext. 6405.

ahelmer@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/helmera

On the second floor of Algonquin College’s oldest building is a large, new apartment where a handful of local senior citizens are playing cards.

The card game, “Shake Loose a Memory,” is designed to spark conversation among people with dementia. Players collect cards based on their recollections: “Keep this card if you have played the piano. Do you remember practising?” “Keep this card if you’ve ever had champagne. Do you remember celebrating weddings?”

The exercise is part of a campus-based adult day program for seniors with dementia — a program made possible by an unusual partnership between the college and local health agencies.

Algonquin has teamed with the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre to introduce the program, which provides support for 30 seniors with dementia. It also gives Algonquin students a unique opportunity to learn and apply new skills.

When it’s fully operational, college nurses, physiotherapy assistants, massage therapists, personal support workers, estheticians and chefs are all expected to work with the day program’s clientele.

“The new Algonquin facility is an excellent example of an organization working to meet the needs of the community while fostering training and education opportunities,” said Jennifer Schenkel, communications director for the Champlain Community Care Access Centre, which manages access to day programs in the Ottawa region.

“It’s a win for the community and for students,” she said.

Launched in January, the program took more than a year to knit together. It began when Algonquin officials approached Ottawa’s regional health authority, the Champlain LHIN, to understand how it might address community needs while, at the same time, sharpening its student experience.

College officials learned that adult day programs were oversubscribed in the region, and that seniors often faced a months-long wait for services.

So Algonquin decided to make available its new “smart apartment” — a $400,000 classroom built for personal support workers, nurses and occupational therapy assistants.

The classroom was designed to replicate a typical senior’s apartment so that students could learn, for instance, how to get a frail, elderly patient safely in and out of bed.

Algonquin College president Cheryl Jensen chats with patient John at the new Algonquin College health-care room.

With financial support from the Champlain LHIN and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, the apartment was expanded to accommodate the community day program.

“It is a real model for collaboration between post secondary and the community,” said Barbara Foulds, dean of the Algonquin’s faculty of health.

Now, three days a week, as many as 10 seniors take part in the day program, which also serves as a respite for caregivers. Korry MacLeod, leader of the day program, said clients can relax, play games and take part in exercise and yoga classes. There’s also a catered lunch, served by Algonquin culinary students, and an afternoon sing-along.

Algonquin College president Cheryl Jensen said the program connects students to the community, while ensuring that the school’s curriculum embraces the latest advances in senior care. “We can’t teach some things with simulation exercises,” she said.“Our students are getting real world experience in this apartment.”

The college, she noted, trains about two-thirds of the city’s health-care workforce, including nurses, personal support workers and respiratory therapists.

Cristina DiTomaso, the manager of community support services for the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre, said the aim of the day program is to keep seniors in their homes longer and out of institutions. 

She called the college-community model a good example of the kind of innovation that will be needed as baby boomers cascade into their senior years. 

The number of seniors in Ontario is projected to more than double to 4.5 million by 2041, when those over 65 will make up about one-quarter of the population. 

“This is the first time we’ve partnered in this way,” said DiTomaso. “And, from our perspective, it’s exciting to work with an academic institution and be able to influence the education of students.”

Algonquin’s smart apartment is one of a growing number of “learning enterprises” on campus: college-based businesses that give students the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned with real customers. The college operates a gourmet restaurant, travel agency, produce market, dental clinic and spa that are open to the public.

Suzanne Mondoux, a first-year student in Algonquin’s occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program, said she likes being able to learn is a real-word setting. In the smart apartment, she recently learned how to assist someone with an immobilized limb do laundry, dress and bathe. 

“We can see it, it’s visual, it’s hands-on learning,” she said. “It gives you real confidence.”

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The little brass wire elephants, antelopes and horses guarding Ottawa interior designer Tazim Lal’s fireplace mantle have something to say.

They’re dhokra figurines — made using a traditional Indian metal-casting technique that dates back 4,000 years — and from their perch, they whisper a story about the native artistry of the subcontinent’s ancient past.

Treasures from India and other world travels can be found throughout Tazim Lal’s renovated 1950s Rockcliffe home, which she shares with her husband, Jaideep Lal. The generously proportioned living room is a perfectly balanced blend of traditional furnishings and Indian-inspired detail

So, too, does a maharaja and his colourful retinue, proudly and noisily (one imagines) parading in their hundreds, while some unknown artist painted them on a piece of ivory, now framed and hanging over the dhokras in Lal’s living room.

Lal’s Thank You India jewelry line contains pieces she has designed as well as fairly traded items made by Indian artisans

In fact, there are few corners of her renovated 1950s Rockcliffe home that don’t somehow sing a little song about Lal’s ties to India and her firm roots in Canada’s modern age.

“Yes, everything has a story. There is no real style,” she laughs, “but rather a classic eclecticism. I don’t like clutter; everything must have a purpose or a story.”

That much is evident in the eloquent flow of one room to another. Purchased in 1999 by Lal and her husband, Jaideep Lal, the home underwent a six-month renovation that replaced everything from the living room windows to the kitchen sink. Satisfied with that much, the only things she changes these days are the wall colour and occasionally, the decor.

“For me, I like furniture with function. I taught my kids,” — now both grown and living in Toronto and New York City — “that every season, you declutter books, clothes and tchotchkes that you haven’t used. I edit, edit and edit all the time.”

It’s an approach that may well have its roots in an austere childhood marked by loss and faith.

Born an Ismaili Muslim in Tanzania, Lal’s mother was 44 when she and her eight children were left destitute after her husband died of a heart attack. Nevertheless, she ensured that the youngest five, helped by the elder three boys, had an education. Lal, the youngest, was sent to live at a British boarding school in England, when she was 13.

A spacious and light-filled kitchen is family central and features curved arches and countertops. A cosy breakfast nook has views of the garden.

“I hardly had any friends. I was the only brown girl and there was a lot of racism. I’m sure I was a burden to my three brothers (who were already in England). But education was very stressed in my family, so they worked to ensure the rest of us had it.”

Three years later, Lal and her mother immigrated to Toronto, where she later earned a bachelor’s degree in science at the University of Toronto. Her mother, 93, two brothers and two sisters live in Edmonton; one sibling stayed in England while another two live in the United States. After marrying her husband, who was a military dentist, the couple were stationed in New Brunswick, then Ottawa, where she earned an interior design degree at Algonquin College.

Brass animal figurines stand at attention over Tazim Lal’s fireplace and under a painting of a maharaja and his retinue. There are numerous mementos that speak to Lal’s family connection to India throughout her comfortable Rockcliffe home.

But it was a 2006 family trip to her husband’s native India when her children were teens that gave her new focus. Already sensitive to the importance of philanthropy in Ismaili culture, she realized she could give back by creating Thank You India, a social enterprise company, which deals in fairly traded Indian jewelry and supports local, grassroots charities there and in Ottawa.

Colour and texture draw the eye onward and upward in the main entrance.

“I saw poverty through the eyes of my children, and I was reminded of my mother’s saying, ‘I cried for a pair of shoes, until I saw a man with no feet.’ We take it for granted that if we work hard in Canada, it pays off. In India, you work hard and often it means nothing. There are 1.6 billion Indians, all sorts of problems and a lack of infrastructure. That trip triggered in me that I could, and should, do something.”

For Lal, 55, that’s meant joining forces with a Catholic aid agency to educate girls from the Dalit caste in Bihar, raising money for Ottawa’s Syrian refugees, supporting the Hopewell Eating Disorders Centre and DIFD’s youth suicide awareness program, as well as acting as a public speaker for the Aga Khan Foundation.

“I was brought up balancing material and spiritual life. It drives me to do more for the less fortunate,” she says.

Money raised from Lal’s Thank You India line has benefited organizations like Cornerstone Housing For Women, Hopewell and the Maharaja’s Ball, a charity gala.

Recently, she went one step further, leading a three-week architecture-and-artisans tour of Gujarat and Rajasthan with a small group. The experience, she says, is immersive and eye-opening for westerners.

“It’s breaking away from the norm, taking meals with artisans and seeing all levels of classes reflected in the art, language and food. It’s an assault on your senses,” she says, “but if you’re open to it, it can be an experience, too.”

Growing up in Sudbury, Heidi Helm knew she had a calling. It just took her 24 years to figure out what it was.

It was 1999 and she was working full time in a bank in her hometown when it donned on her: If she stayed where she was, she’d go crazy. So, she packed her bags, moved to Ottawa and enrolled in the interior design program at Algonquin College.

In an Orléans home, designer Heidi Helm created a cottage-chic kitchen, complete with white and grey cabinets crowned with deep mouldings, grey and smoky blue mosaic backsplash and a built-in banquette for casual family meals.

Heidi Helm created a cottage-chic feel for a family home in Orléans.

“I was always rearranging my bedroom furniture,” she recalls with a giggle, to explain her creative flair and lifelong love of design.

“It’s always a new adventure with design,” says Helm, who opened her own home-based business, Urbanomic Interiors (urbanomic.ca), in 2004. “With design, there is a lot of question marks … it appeals to my internal need to be pushing the boundaries.”

A chartreuse accent wall adds a pop of colour to the streamlined kitchen Heidi Helm designed in Alta Vista.

And that’s something she does extremely well. Take, for example, Marc Lepine’s hip restaurant, Atelier, located in a house just off Preston Street. Helm worked for three years with the award-winning chef to expand and remodel the intimate eatery, including a new private dining room called THRU, which is opening this spring. For added drama, Helm used a bold black-and-white colour scheme, hits of shimmery metallics and textured walls that look like crinkled paper on the second storey. A diagonal line runs across the floor and onto the ceiling, splitting the room in half with an all-white dining room on one side and sleek black bar on the other.

Helm worked with chef Marc Lepine to create THRU, a new private dining room set to open this spring.

The Bijou Lounge on Bank Street is a kaleidoscope of pinks, purples and blue lighting and furnishings.

Sushi 88, left and Bowman’s, right, are two restaurants that Helm has designed.

At the Bijou Lounge on Bank Street, Helm turned up the funk factor with moody purple, pink, blue and yellow lighting and a tufted wall of velvet. A raised VIP area with armless sofas adds to the hip vibe.

Hooch Bourbon House, on Rideau Street, is another venue designed by Helm and her firm Urbanomic Interiors.

“I like to play with the latest and greatest materials. I’m very experimental,” says the hands-on designer, whose dark hair is cut in an asymmetrical bob with short bangs streaked turquoise blue and purple. She describes the work she does as “youthful, energetic urban spaces for forward thinkers, trailblazers and non-conformists.”

Boutique restaurants and residential kitchens are her favourite spaces to design.

“I don’t cook often, but I cook well,” says the self-confessed foodie, whose signature dishes include sushi and Eggs Heidi, her take on Eggs Benedict, but with prosciutto ham, sautéed mushrooms and Havarti cheese with jalapeño.

“I love food and public places where food is shared.”

She recently designed a contemporary kitchen in Alta Vista featuring white lacquer and walnut veneer cabinets with a horizontal grain offset by white marble counters and a chartreuse accent wall. Open shelves flank the sink and a glass tile backsplash runs up the wall behind a stainless-steel hood fan.

In an Orléans home, she created a cottage-chic kitchen, complete with white and grey cabinets crowned with deep mouldings, grey and smoky blue mosaic backsplash and a built-in banquette for casual family meals.

A contemporary kitchen in Kanata featuring white lacquer and walnut veneer cabinets with a horizontal grain offset by white marble counters and a chartreuse accent wall. Open shelves flank the sink and a glass tile backsplash runs up the wall behind a stainless-steel hood fan.

“I pride myself in being able to design all styles,” says the shy, soft-spoken designer, who readily admits she’s not a big fan of florals, heavy patterns or too much ornamentation.

Some may call her quirky and her design ideas a tad off-the-wall, but that’s OK with her.

“Normal is boring.”

Of all the things Elena Zakharov thought possible as a Ukrainian girl growing up in the repressive communist era of the 1970s, cruising through Beverly Hills in a Mercedes Benz was never one of them.

Neither was moving to Canada, earning a second degree nor starting her own online jewelry store — yet the 46-year-old mother of two sons has done them all.

“I look at what has happened so far and I would never have imagined as a girl that my life would be like this,” says Zakharov, the talent and brains behind EZ Jewel Box, a collection of her own modern designs coupled with astonishing pieces curated from Israel, Brazil, the United States, China and Italy.

Designs include a blue howlite hammered sterling silver ring, raw citrine brass cuff and blue howlite silver earrings.

Zakharov says her unique jewelry — oversized sterling silver necklaces, hammered silver cuffs dotted with opals or fresh water pearls and unusual bilaterally-designed pieces built around raw gems — is a reflection of artistic skills that made themselves known when she was growing up.

Back then, Ukraine was closed to all foreign influence and imports, leaving Zakharov, then 14, to make do with fabric scraps, buttons and yarn to create fashion that stood out from the state-issued clothes.

Larimar hammered sterling silver bracelet, $209, and earrings, $85. Also available in opal and pearl.

Howlite is considered to have healing properties and is a stone that represents tranquility and calm. The necklace is priced at $189.

Jasper stone, $79, can be designed with an adjustable chain.

In 1995, after graduating with a bachelor of arts degree from the Kiev Institute of Culture, she moved to Canada with her husband and son. Her parents eventually joined them. Zakharov taught piano for a living and sewed clothes on the side, before earning a computer science diploma at Algonquin College.

Currently working full time for the government in IT, she plans to grow her two-year-old business both online and through area events and trade shows.

“I do like my job,” she says, “but this gives me an opportunity to express my love and fascination of distinctive designs.”

EZ Jewel Box will be at the Ottawa Wedding Show April 2-3 at the EY Centre. ezjewelbox.com

The city shouldn’t stop making cabbies take a course on serving customers and navigating Ottawa roads, according to one city councillor.

“I find it’s a backwards step,” West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry said Monday.

Mandatory training for standard cabs would be erased from the bylaw if council approves several staff proposals designed to reform the local taxi industry.

New taxi licence applicants need to get a mark of at least 75 per cent in the course to qualify for a permit. While the standard training would become voluntary under the proposed changes, the city still wants to make each new cabby take a course on accessible taxis.

El-Chantiry, who once sat on a now-defunct taxi advisory board, said the training has helped improve the quality of taxi service in the region.

“Before we did taxi driver training, we used to hear quite a bit of complaints,” El-Chantiry said, adding that the taxi course has taught cabbies how to be “first ambassadors” for the city, since many travellers are jumping into taxis when they arrive in Ottawa.

The city is following the advice of KPMG, the consultant hired to review Ottawa’s taxi bylaw. The consultant notes the rave reviews from customers of Uber when that company doesn’t require its drivers to take training. Customers rate Uber drivers through a smartphone application.

KPMG says the taxi training course is heavy on “wayfinding,” but GPS devices easily direct cabbies to destinations.

El-Chantiry fears the city’s taxi recommendations were written largely with Uber in mind.

“The technology doesn’t replace the human contact about how you address (customers) and how you present yourself. To me, that’s an important step.”

Algonquin College has a course with two instructors who train cabbies to work in Ottawa. The city and taxi industry helped develop the course. The course costs $820, plus another $370 for the accessible taxi training.

Lindsay Hinds, the manager of operations and program implementation, said enrollment in the taxi course has decreased 70 to 80 per cent because of Uber’s growth and the number of people waiting to see what the city does with the taxi regulations.

“A lot of our students who are potential taxi drivers looking to get their licence have waited for this report before they register for any of the training programs that are required by the City of Ottawa,” Hinds said.

Algonquin runs three courses delivered over four weeks. Two courses teach drivers about customer service and key landmarks in Ottawa, while the third is on accessible taxi service.

“We actually get very good feedback from students and our instructors receive a lot of that feedback,” Hinds said.

Hinds said the college is interested in continuing the taxi course.

“We’re just anticipating further discussions with the city when the dust settles to see exactly what we could be offering potentially for the city,” Hinds said.

“I’m willing to hear and listen what might be out there, and what the needs are of the taxi driver and what the needs are of the city and those taxi companies.”

El-Chantiry said all transportation providers covered by the proposed taxi bylaw could benefit from the course since it has raised service standards in Ottawa.

“I don’t see why the new transportation method would be exempted from it, no matter who they are, Uber or others,” El-Chantiry said. “In my opinion, it should stay on.”

jwilling@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JonathanWilling

Algonquin president Cheryl Jensen is heading to Saudi Arabia to check out for herself the college’s male-only campus in Jazan and the possibility of opening a college for women in the country.

Jensen said the trip later this month will include both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where Algonquin provides the curriculum for programs at a college run by an independent company.

“As president, I need to have my feet on the ground of our international efforts,” said Jensen after an Algonquin board of governors meeting Monday. 

Algonquin’s college in Jazan has been controversial. Premier Kathleen Wynne has said it’s unacceptable for Ontario colleges to run campuses abroad that don’t offer equal access to men and women. Jensen said she has discussed the issue with Wynne, who is “well versed on what our plans are for the entire project.”

Algonquin officials say they are considering making a bid to operate a women’s college in Jazan. More information might be available at the June board of governors meeting.

The faculty union at Algonquin has called on the college to get out of Saudi Arabia. Union steward Claire Tortolo, who was at the meeting Monday, said Jensen’s trip is “part of a larger plan to present Saudi Arabia as a place that is welcoming.

“I feel uncomfortable with the idea that (Algonquin) would openly support a regime that executes people for a variety of crimes, including simply speaking out on political issues, that segregates men and women in almost every layer of society, including in the educational field,” she said in an interview.

Tortolo, an ESL teacher, said she would not be allowed to work at the male campus in Jazan, nor would a man be allowed to teach at a female campus in the country. That doesn’t conform to Algonquin’s stated values of respect, integrity and equality, she said.

jmiller@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

A local entrepreneur who made global headlines for his off-the-grid home last year is getting ready to unveil his latest unconventional solution in sustainable energy.

Algonquin College mechanical engineering student Joseph Dupuis was thrust into the spotlight last spring when the story of his solar-powered cabin made from shipping containers went viral.

This time around, Dupuis has assembled a team of students and built a prototype of what he said may be an innovation in solar technology: a solar tracking device that costs less to make than traditional solar power systems.

He was to present a working prototype at Algonquin’s Applied Research Day on Friday.

The difference between 29-year-old Dupuis’ device and a traditional system lies in its interior programming. The core concept of converting sunlight into electricity remains the same. 

“We came up with a tracking system that uses very, very inexpensive components,” said Dupuis. “These are components you can buy off the shelf at any electronics store.

“This technology that we developed is not new or groundbreaking in the sense that we invented new tech. However, we are using very affordable and simple components to achieve something that in the past would be too complex and costly for the average consumer.”

Instead of using expensive programmable logic controllers to track the sun — which sell for around $5,000, according to Dupuis, and require a strong understanding of electronics and complex software — his system uses a $12 microprocessing device called an Arduino, which can be purchased on Amazon. It can be programmed into a solar tracking device “with very basic understanding of coding and a simple computer,” said Dupuis.

“A fraction of the cost with still the same performance.”

Dupuis believes his device could make solar power more accessible to the average homeowner because of the potential cost difference. 

“We’re hoping to be able to market it as a very inexpensive way to make solar electricity,” he said.

Nick Harper of Barrie-based Home Energy Solutions believes that, at a glance, if Dupuis has invented a better “mouse-trap” in solar tracking — and his Arduino system does work — then such a cost-saving measure would be taken seriously in the solar energy industry. 

“If it’s a proven method that actually works,” said Harper, “then, in this industry, that always goes over well because most of the products are fairly expensive. If you can put something out into the market that brings the overall installation costs down, it could be a very good thing.”

Harper said in his 11 years in the renewable energy industry, he has seen many changes. Solar power went from a seasonal industry to year-round, for example.

Dupuis spent the past eight months working with a team of six electronic engineering students through Algonquin College’s Applied Research and Innovation to build and test a prototype. He said it has passed the tests and works.

The working prototype may be subject to further testing in the months to come. Dupuis is also in talks with Algonquin’s Perth, Ont. campus to install a full-scale, 20-panel model that will function as an electric car charging station.

“I really hope we can do the solar charging station,” said Kerry Milford, project manager of Applied Research and Innovation at Algonquin’s Perth campus. “We’d love to collaborate with Joseph and move forward on this.”

When Algonquin College asked one of the world’s biggest engineering companies to help it save energy, no one at the college expected to start generating two million watts of their own electricity.

The big yellow cogeneration unit (meaning it burns natural gas to generate both electricity and heat for buildings at the same time) is now a reality. The tour of VIPs in clean and gleaming hardhats is over.

And the result puts Algonquin a big step ahead of the usual energy-saving plans that concentrate mainly on better windows, low-energy lightbulbs and low-flow toilets. (Algonquin, as it happens, is doing those things too.)

The cogen unit, as it’s known, “was something the college didn’t even consider” when it asked companies for proposals, said Todd Schonewille, the college’s director of physical resources. “But Siemens put together a pretty compelling vision of how this would fit in with our overall energy modelling for the campus.”

That was in 2012. Construction for the cogen unit began in earnest last summer.

The waste heat from the power generator does two things. In winter, it heats buildings. No surprise there.

But in summer, this heat actually cools them. The system is called an absorption chiller, and it uses leftover heat from the generator to power a chemical process to bring down the air temperature.

This means that the generating system will be running at highest levels in summer and winter, when it is cost-effective because of the cooling and heating.

And there’s more on the horizon: Some solar power still to come, and the potential for a second two-megawatt generator. (A megawatt is one million watts.) The college’s peak power use comes in September, at about four million watts, and it reaches about three million watts in winter.

The new technology is also a teaching tool for Algonquin students. Ontario has just approved the college’s new certificate program in energy management, which is an immediate fit.

The power produced at Algonquin stays at Algonquin, unlike home-variety solar panels that usually send power to Ontario’s grid.

An interpretive centre just outside the plant will show staff and students minute-by-minute figures on power production and usage.

The entire project, which encompasses major changes to energy use throughout the campus, is supposed to pay for itself through energy savings in 20 years.

tspears@postmedia.com

twitter.com/TomSpears1

Katie Bousca had high hopes when she moved to Ottawa from Baker Lake, Nunavut, two years ago to take part in the culinary program at Algonquin College. But after just two semesters — struggling financially, feeling depressed and living in shelters — the 20-year-old Inuit woman had no choice but to drop out.

Next month, Bousca will get a second chance at reaching her dreams as one of 20 aboriginal students enrolled in a new indigenous cook pre-apprenticeship program kicking off at Algonquin on May 9.

“I want to finish the program. I want to finish what I started,” said Bousca, who aspires to become a sous chef one day.

The indigenous cooking program involves 15 weeks of culinary skills training on everything from knife skills to sauces, followed by three months of Level 1 apprenticeship training in the kitchen and a two-month placement in the Ottawa food services industry.

Students’ program expenses are completely covered thanks to $238,053 in funding provided by the Ontario government this March, one of the reasons Bousca was able to go back to school.

But there’s a special twist: Everything the students learn will focus on aboriginal cuisine and culture.

Jerome Brasser, executive chef at Ottawa’s Wabano Centre, will teach students how to mix aboriginal-style soups, enhance flavour using bird stocks, and cook wild buffalo and elk glazed in fresh Saskatoon berry sauce.

Guest elders will also share their knowledge about smoking fish and hominy corn, and will lead an opening ceremony for the students that involves smudging, drumming and singing.

“It’s important for generations to come to pass on what you know,” said Brasser, who learned his tricks from elders in Attawapiskat, Ont., who raved his cooking was “even better” than their mothers’.

“A lot of (indigenous) people are losing their heritage by moving into the big cities,” Brasser said. “If we can keep the traditions going, they’ll always be here.”

Wes Wilkinson, academic manager of the program and a chef himself, came up with the idea for the indigenous cook pre-apprenticeship after hearing about the low graduation rate for aboriginal students in culinary programs, which he said is around 40 per cent.

He learned many aboriginal students who leave small communities to study in the city face the same struggle adapting as Bousca did. Faced with a new environment and no family there to support her, Bousca found herself confused and alone.

“I thought, ‘What if we were to put together a program that was culturally significant, with indigenous foods, taught by indigenous instructors?’ ” Wilkinson said. “What’s the graduation rate going to be for that?”

While hobbyist programs on aboriginal cooking exist, Wilkinson said, there are few formal college programs on the subject. 

The program is a chance to “reinvigorate” a part of aboriginal culture, Wilkinson said.

He hopes that by giving students the education they need to find employment, while also providing them traditional knowledge they can apply in their communities, that students will be able to thrive.

For Bousca, at least, it’s a fresh start.

“When I first came down to college, I was so lost,” she said. “And I’m finally regaining everything.”

Although she’s not quite sure what to expect, Bousca said she’s excited for the new experience.

“I don’t want to return home until I’ve accomplished something.”

Three favourites from an indigenous chef’s cookbook

The next generation of indigenous cooks will learn the ins and outs of preparing aboriginal cuisine through a new indigenous cook pre-apprenticeship program at Algonquin College starting May 9.

Jerome Brasser, a member of Marten Falls First Nation in northern Ontario and executive chef at the Wabano Centre, explained a few of the basic recipes he’ll pass down to students in the program.

Pork hock

Along with moose, elk and deer meat, pork hock is a favourite dish of Brasser’s.

“Once it’s boiled for a few hours,” he said, “it’s a real nice, delicate meat” — one he tosses into a traditional northern Ontario Ojibwe soup with hominy corn.

Brasser said students in his class will learn how to make hominy by smoking or boiling corn, which removes the hull of the kernels and makes them puff up in size.

Three sisters soup

The three sisters soup is a classic indigenous recipe, Brasser said.

And it’s simple.

Just a mix of three vegetables: corn, beans and squash.

Bannock

The final staple recipe is bannock, a type of bread that can be baked or fried.

It’s sometimes compared to scones, and can be paired with a cedar tea, Brasser said. 

“It’s fantastic to see people liking what you cook on a day-to-day basis, especially if it’s traditional,” Brasser said.

“To teach it to a new generation will be fantastic.”