Latest news with #LaurentianUniversity
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
First Nations, researchers probe James Bay climate impacts
Northern Ontario Watch Mushkegowuk Tribal Council partners with Laurentian University to study climate change impacts on James Bay and Hudson Bay coasts, with Grand Chief Leo Friday highlighting shifts in temperature, wildlife, coastlines, and effects on First Nations communities. Tony Ryma sits down with the Grand Chief to discuss.
CBC
30-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Steep drop in international graduate student enrolment at Laurentian University projected for the fall
Social Sharing Laurentian University's Board of Governors has approved a balanced budget for the 2025-26 taking into account a steep decline in international graduate students and financial instability posed by American trade policy. Both factors have created additional costs, resulting in academic units and administrative departments being asked to contract their non-salary spending from last year's levels, although staffing levels remain stable. "The next fiscal year will be a significant one for Laurentian University in a number of historic ways," wrote President Lynn Wells. "First, the University continues to make important progress on its obligations under creditor protection. By November 2025, Laurentian University is planning to complete the sales of the designated properties to the province, another critical step in building the future of our Institution." Because the university is still working through its insolvency, it cannot borrow money until it exits creditor protection and builds up its credit rating. Tuition continues to be the big source of revenue for the university and Wells said the news there is not good. Laurentian's consolidated budget projects a total enrolment for next year of 6,040, down from 6,332. While domestic undergraduate enrolment is expected to increase by about 80 students, there is a projected drop in international graduate students who pay three times the domestic tuition. She says they expect a 55 per cent hit in the number of foreign students, if everyone who has been admitted, follows through. "You never really know how many students you're going to have until September comes and classes open and you see who's who's sitting," she said. "But that's the early indication that we have is that admissions are down about 55 per cent." That's not to say that the seats aren't available, said Wells, but rather that students from other countries aren't choosing Canada. "We've been able to work within our allocation pretty easily, but what really is having an impact is the reputation that Canada now has abroad as a very difficult place to enter for university study," she said. Wells said Laurentian university is taking steps to deal with less revenue, such as deferring some new position requests and the hiring of non-critical faculty and staff until at least September. Small surplus expected Overall, the budget allows for a $1.7 million dollar surplus, as well as setting aside an amount for pay raises expected after the Laurentian University Faculty Association negotiates a new contract, with the current agreement set to expire in June. Wells said the university is forging on and meeting its obligations. "I always like to emphasize the fact that despite a really challenging set of circumstances that are affecting all Canadian universities, Laurentian, continues to be very much on the path to recovery and strength," she said. "We're doing a great job of serving the people of the Greater Sudbury region, but also northern Ontario and Canada and that will continue."
CBC
30-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Trump's plans to mine the deep ocean are untested and could cause environmental harm, say mining experts
A recent executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump to invest in deep sea mining operations could have dire environmental consequences, according to a northern Ontario mining expert. On April 24, Trump issued an executive order called Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources. Its goal is to promote the development of deep sea mining by streamlining the permitting process and investing in technology to extract critical minerals like nickel, cobalt and manganese from metallic nodules on the ocean floor. Nadia Mykytczuk, the executive director of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University in Sudbury, said deep sea mining remains unproven and could have harmful impacts on aquatic life. "Because we're new at it means that we don't know what technologies and extraction methods we're going to use and how those might have massive and potentially irreversible impacts on the environment," she said. Mykytczuk said that the critical minerals found in the deep sea are important to advance technologies such as electric vehicles, but added that tradtional terrestrial deposits should be explored further before looking to deep sea mining. "We're trying to create a more sustainable future and we simply would be fools to do that at the expense of the environment," she said. U.S. desperate for critical minerals Mark Selby, the CEO of mining company Canada Nickel, said the executive order underscores that the U.S. is in short supply of the critical minerals that are found in the deep sea. Selby said Chinese companies control much of the world's supply of nickel – through Indonesian mines – along with cobalt and manganese with mines in different parts of Africa. After Trump signed the executive order, the Chinese foreign ministry argued it would violate international law since many deep sea mineral deposits are located in international waters. Selby said he's not concerned deep sea mining could impact his operations, which include a nickel sulphide deposit north of Timmins, Ont., since the technology remains untested at a commercial scale. "They've done some pilot scale testing, but there's never been a commercial operation," he said. He said it would be expensive to extract critical minerals from under-sea nodules because they would require new technology and are located far from processing plants. The nodules can also be up to 4,000 metres deep, while the deepest nickel mine in Sudbury, for example, is around 2,000 metres deep. "We will have to sort of wait and see what the real cost of mining at 4,000 metres underwater is going to look like in the middle of the open ocean," he said.
CBC
21-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Report finds Atlantic doctor registry has had little impact on access to care
A new report looking into the effectiveness of the Atlantic Physician Register since its launch two years ago says it has not substantially improved access to health care in the region. The registry was designed to make it easier for doctors to work across the four Atlantic provinces by allowing them to practise anywhere in the region without additional licensing requirements. Doctors can opt into the registry at an annual fee of $500, which gives them more freedom to cross provincial borders to work. However, the report — requested by the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada (FMRAC) and conducted by researchers at Laurentian University — found that only about 417 of the more than 5,500 physicians who were eligible signed up. On Prince Edward Island, just 36 doctors participated. The report described this level of uptake as "modest." Impact on physician mobility Dr. George Carruthers, registrar for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of P.E.I., acknowledged that the registry did achieve co-operation among the region's medical colleges by streamlining licensing processes and building trust. However, he said that when it comes to physician mobility within Atlantic Canada, the region is a closed system. "There's only X number of physicians in the Maritimes, in Atlantic Canada, and so moving them around — if you're working in Charlottetown, you decide to go to Amherst, then you're not working in Charlottetown," said Carruthers, who's also president of FMRAC. "It proved the point of co-operation and trust and understanding, simplifying process, reducing fees, but from a mobility point of view, and extra care, [it] probably didn't show as much as some people had hoped." P.E.I. has about 500 licensed doctors, and about 20 off-Island physicians obtained licenses through the registry to practise here. Carruthers said he's not aware what those 20 people specifically do — ER shifts, specialty work or virtual care. "If you're a patient who is receiving care from somebody, it's significant. But I don't think it was the numbers that we wanted to see, you know, in terms of bigger numbers," he said. In total, 35 doctors from outside P.E.I. practised in the province during the time studied by the researchers, though some had already been working locum shifts before the registry was introduced, he added. Administrative barriers remain The report also found that while the registry simplified the licensing process, it did not eliminate other administrative hurdles for doctors moving to a new province. Some of the physicians said they withdrew from the process after learning it merely streamlined licensing, calling it "false advertising." Carruthers said that beyond licensing, doctors still need to go through a number of steps. "Through the health authority, through Health P.E.I., they have to get privileged, credentialed, they have to get their Medicare numbers, their billing numbers, they have to get their positions. So there's many layers," he said. Additionally, the report shows that many physicians invited to participate in the survey were unaware the registry even existed, despite promotional efforts by medical colleges, medical societies and provincial governments. Improvements proposed The report makes a number of recommendations, such as reducing administrative and cost burdens for doctors seeking to work in multiple provinces, as well as creating a centralized hub for information about the registry. "We've got work to do, and we're not going to scrap it, but I think we just grow on it," Carruthers said. In a statement, the P.E.I. Department of Health and Wellness acknowledged that while the Atlantic registry is a step toward streamlining physician licensing, further improvements are necessary. We're a fixed number, whether it be the Atlantic provinces or nationally. So we just need other options to bring more health-care providers into the system. — Dr. George Carruthers "We are actively engaged in discussions about potential options for other professions regarding interprovincial licensure and registries," the statement reads. "We are grateful to our medical regulatory bodies for their ongoing efforts and expertise, and we will continue to work closely with them to ensure the Atlantic Registry evolves to meet the needs of both physicians and patients." Carruthers said while there may be interest in a national approach to multi-jurisdictional licensing, improving access to health care requires more than just streamlining mobility.
CBC
26-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Northern Ontario academics say they worry for their U.S. colleagues in wake of Trump policies
A professor at Laurentian University in Sudbury says she is concerned about her American friends and colleagues who fear for their careers because of executive orders from United States President Donald Trump. In a Feb. 14 letter to educators across the United States, Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights with the United States Department of Education, threatened to cut federal funding to schools that continue to support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. Any elementary, secondary and post secondary education institution that receives federal funding would be affected. Watching from Canada as this scenario unfolds south of the border, Amanda Shweinbenz says many American academics fear that policy could end their careers. "I have a chapter coming out about how white women need to… work with and coalesce with racialized women in order to decolonize academia and address those barriers," said Schweinbenz, whose research focuses primarily on marginalized people in sport. "When that comes out, how will that publication — that's [co-authored by] a Black woman scholar from the United States — how will that impact her career?" The letter from Trainor said American education institutions "have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families." Trainor painted DEI initiatives as the cause of that discrimination. But Schweinbenz counters that argument, saying DEI initiatives are about creating more accommodations and accessibility for students and staff. "It's about people with physical disabilities, or cognitive disabilities, people who need additional support because of the barriers that we have in this ableist world," she said. Schweinbenz adds that racialized academics, especially women, often help manage DEI initiatives at their institutions, and their careers could be at risk because of the time they dedicate to that work. She says the political sea change in the U.S. has already started to affect Canadian academics as well. University of New Brunswick sociology professor Nathan Kalman-Lamb says on Jan. 17, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped him from boarding a plane from Montreal to Washington, D.C. "I have not received a single explanation for why I was stopped," Kalman-Lamb told CBC News. He was headed to the U.S. to promote his new book, The End of College Football, which explores "how football is both predicated on a foundation of coercion and suffused with racialized harm and exploitation," according to the publisher. Kalman-Lamb says about two weeks after he was stopped from boarding his flight, his co-author Derek Silva had his NEXUS card revoked. The card allows for expedited border crossings between Canada and the U.S. Uncertainty for academics Thomas Merritt, a professor at Laurentian's School of Natural Sciences, says policy changes in the U.S. have led to a lot of uncertainty for his colleagues south of the border. "The biggest issue seems to be that contracts and commitments are not being honoured," he said. "Grants are not being reviewed… The scientific system in any country is based essentially on writing grants, getting grants funded, and then pursuing that research. That process is sort of on hold in the U.S." Merritt, who has dual Canadian and American citizenship, says he continues to maintain close ties to the country of his birth. That includes mentoring young researchers with the Genetic Society of America. "Some people really feel personally threatened," he said.
