Pilot Project Teams Up St. John Ambulance Reading Education Assistance Dogs With St. Paul Catholic Elementary School Students

Kitchener – St. Paul Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener has entered into an innovative pilot project partnership with the St. John Ambulance Reading Education Assistance Dog (R.E.A.D.) Program.

In the pilot project, reluctant young readers build confidence and self-esteem by reading to attentive canines, rather than adults or peers. As one child remarked: “Dogs don’t mind if you make mistakes…and they don’t interrupt!”

The presence of a therapy dog helps reduce the anxiety of the child and helps ease the pressure on them to perform.

WHERE:
St. Paul Catholic Elementary School
45 Birchcliffe Ave., Kitchener (743-4401)

WHEN:
10:30 a.m. sharp -- Tuesday, March 28, 2006

WHO:
Grade 2 students from St. Paul’s and Therapy Dogs from St. John Ambulance

WATERLOO - The University of Waterloo welcomes the budget's tremendous announcement by the Ontario government of substantial investments in research and innovation in two Waterloo-based institutes.

At Queen's Park this afternoon, in the budget announcement, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan pledged $100 million in new support: $50 million for the Institute for Quantum Computing at UW; and $50 million for the neighboring Perimeter Institute Institute for Theoretical Physics.

UW President David Johnston voiced praise for the far-reaching announcement.

"The announcement of the $100-million commitment supporting Perimeter Institute, and the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, is a splendid, outstanding piece of province-building," said President Johnston. "In today's knowledge economy it is critical that we invest in fundamental research, and in the people who will take us to new frontiers of discovery. Premier McGuinty, as Minister of Research and Innovation, has shown superb leadership with this budget -- clearly understanding the importance of investment in research and innovation to Ontario's future."

Raymond Laflamme, Director of IQC, joined in commending the Ontario government initiative.

"This is tremendous news for our research program in the IQC. We are simply overwhelmed with this indication of faith in our research program into the fundamentals and laws of quantum physics," said Dr. Laflamme. "We have already been building a great team of international scholars. This funding will help us to ensure that our work will continue at a global level of excellence."

Support for the two institutes came as the province also announced substantial investment in other research and innovation projects: $17 million for 3 new awards to recognize new research and innovation talent; $25 million to establish the Premier Summit Awards to support excellence in medical research; $16.2 million for development of Phase II of MaRS Discovery Project; and $160 million for accelerating commercialization and growth of innovative startups.

The University of Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at UW, and the independent Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), also in Waterloo, represent an emerging, highly focused cluster of international scientific research with transformative potential. Quantum theory has clearly demonstrated that quantum information processing - computing at the atomic and sub-atomic levels - will revolutionize cryptography. This holds profound implications for the security of IT systems including national defense, financial markets and healthcare systems. The scientific pursuit of the quantum computer will produce vital technological spin-offs. Early research findings indicate that quantum-based systems have the potential to produce powerful new technologies that will inevitably eclipse today's information processing devices. Waterloo Region is established as a magnet for top international talent in advanced physics research. This unique public-private partnership in this key strategic area ensures that Canada will lead the world in quantum technologies far into the future.

UW is getting ready to comply with Ontario law on freedom of information, which will apply to the province's universities starting later this spring, says a memo from the provost.

The memo notes that the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act "was enacted in Ontario in the late 1980s and most private and public institutions were mandated to comply with it. Universities at that time made representation to the provincial government that, for a variety of reasons, they were different from other organizations and warranted exclusion. The provincial government was persuaded on the condition that universities put in place practices that were in the spirit of the legislation."

Lawyers for the Council of Ontario Universities prepared a "FIPPA template" which universities, including UW, put into effect. Waterloo's Privacy Protection and Freedom of Information Guidelines are part of the university's Policy 19. The university is also covered by the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

However, provost Amit Chakma goes on, "A couple of years ago, following a freedom of information request made to universities, the response to which was deemed less than satisfactory, the provincial government renewed its interest in having universities under FIPPA legislation. Universities again, through COU, argued for a sector exclusion, but this time were unsuccessful and so, effective June 12, 2006, universities will come under FIPPA legislation.

"In the circumstance, COU has again done what it did in the 1990s: engage a couple of wise heads, with recognized expertise and experience in FIPPA compliance within the university sector, to work with a small task force to produce both documentation and an implementation plan which universities can use. . . . While there will be more prescriptive directions on how universities must deal with freedom of information and privacy protection matters, the principles on which all is based remain similar to those articulated in UW's Policy 19.

"In anticipation of preparing UW for FIPPA compliance, I have asked Lois Claxton (right) to chair a committee to address implementation. Bruce Mitchell, Jack Rehder, Catharine Scott, Susan Sykes, and Roger Watt have also agreed to serve. Terms of Reference for this small committee are straightforward: in concert with COU's work/recommendations on implementation of FIPPA, to recommend on documentation, implementation, training and resources which UW will require to ensure compliance with FIPPA and, to the extent possible, to harmonize them with PIPEDA requirements. The Committee will consult across campus, as necessary."

Claxton, the chair of the committee, is secretary of the university. Mitchell and Scott are associate provosts; Rehder is assistant to the dean of mathematics; Watt is in information systems and technology; and Sykes is director of research ethics and grants, and the key person in current freedom-of-information procedures.

A delegation headed by the presidents of UW and McMaster University appeared at last night's [Wednesday] meeting of Waterloo Regional Council to ask for a multi-million-dollar grant to help build a medical school on the planned downtown Kitchener health sciences campus.

Council agreed with a recommendation from Ken Seiling, the regional chair, to set up a special committee "to review the request and make a recommendation" following a public meeting to get input on whether the Region should spend money in that way. It's the same procedure followed when the Region was asked for -- and eventually approved -- $37 million in capital grants for local hospitals.

The Regional Municipality is the mid-level government that covers the cities of Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge as well as the four surrounding townships.

"A unique opportunity exists to build a satellite Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine" on the UW branch campus, university president David Johnston said in a letter to Seiling that was distributed with last night's agenda. The DeGroote School is McMaster University's medical faculty.

Said Johnston: "The benefits to the community are substantial, particularly with respect to improved access to health care services. . . . We realize a request of this importance will need careful consideration by councillors and the community alike. . . . As students are to be enrolled in September 2007 an expeditious process leading to a decision prior to the end of April 2006 would be appreciated."

Johnston's letter didn't say how much money he'd like the Region to provide, but last night he and Peter George of Mac suggested $19 million. They said the total up-front cost of the medical school will be $34 million.

"I expect that the public will be behind it all the way," said one council member, the mayor of Wilmot Township west of Kitchener. Others were sceptical about the cost, as they discussed the request and agreed to schedule a public meeting for discussion.

Last night's meeting also dealt with regional property tax rates for 2006, bicycle lanes on University Avenue, and controversial restrictions on pesticide use.

The University’s Integrated Plan, which identifies priorities and decision frameworks aimed at helping the University meet its mission now and in the future, has been released.

A special website has been created that includes the overall University Integrated Plan, along with the plans put forward by the colleges and other campus academic units. Because the document is for internal use only, members of the U of G community will need to enter their central login account username and password to access the web page.

“This is the first step toward creating our initial five-year plan, which will begin in 2006/07,” says Maureen Mancuso, provost and vice-president (academic), who is overseeing Integrated Planning.

The plan is making its way through the University’s governance process, which will allow feedback to be obtained from faculty, staff and students. The plan will be presented to the Senate Committee on University Planning Monday, March 27, and to Senate Tuesday, April 4. Comments on the Integrated Plan may be sent to provost@uoguelph.ca.

Mancuso emphasizes that the Integrated Plan is an internal operational document and does not replace the University’s strategic plan, strategic directions or research plans. The initial plan is inherently transitional and covers only academic units. At its core is an identification of five areas of planning emphasis that will be highlighted over the next five years. Eventually, the process will encompass all components of the University.

“We will be focusing on these key areas in order to promote and advance the capabilities, capacities and reputation of the University,” Mancuso says, adding that the five areas emerged from the plans developed by the colleges, departments and units.

The overall plan that resulted from the campus-wide exercise reveals a continued depth of creativity and ingenuity at U of G, she adds. “The initiatives are innovative and novel and build on existing institutional strengths, and many of them are interdisciplinary and collaborative. We hope that Integrated Planning will ultimately provide the University with a more transparent, accountable and effective planning process as we move forward from an era of making change to one of making choices.”

WATERLOO - In celebrating National Co-operative Education Week, the University of Waterloo's Co-operative Education & Career Services announced that two of the UW's co-op students have been awarded prestigious national and provincial awards.

As well, the department presented six UW Co-op Student of the Year Awards to top representatives from each of the faculties: Applied Health Sciences, Arts, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Mathematics and Science.

Jit Seng Chen, a mathematics student, has received the 2005 Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE) Co-op Student of the Year Award, while Kayan (Kayley) Ma, an engineering student, was given the 2005 Education at Work in Ontario (EWO) Co-op Student of the Year Award.

Both awards are based on the students' contributions to one or more of their 2005 work term employers, academic achievements, contributions to co-operative education and commitment to the community as demonstrated through volunteer and extracurricular activities.

* Jit Seng Chen, 3A actuarial science. By his own initiative, Chen, developed a system for analyzing insurance loss development data that his co-op employer used on a regular basis. The automation of this process saves the employer approximately 200 hours per period of data and therefore a substantial amount of money. Chen was also part of a crucial project involving an important international client and with his help it was successful.

* Kayan (Kayley) Ma, 4B systems design engineering. During her last work term, Ma elaborated on previous work researching manufacturing technologies to foster economic growth. She took the advancements in tracking human motions developed by the animation and movie industries, then applied them to the manufacturing industry. Ma achieved a major breakthrough that enabled the system to perform high quality real-time motion capture, thus earning her sixth and final "Outstanding" work term performance evaluation.

Also, as part of National Co-operative Education Week, one student from each of Waterloo's faculties was selected to receive UW Co-op Student of the Year Awards.

Apart from winning the national and provincial level awards, Chen and Ma also won the Co-op Student of the Year Award for Mathematics and Engineering, respectively. Other faculty recipients for the year are:

* Arts

Shaneika Bailey, 3B social development studies. Bailey spent her last work term with a charitable agency in Guyana where she was instrumental in acquiring funding for building renovations, as well as toy and clothing donations for children. The quest to aid orphans gave her the opportunity to form important relationships with government officials in the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Human Services, as well as in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. Shaneika also assisted in a peer education program about HIV/AIDS awareness.

* Applied Health Sciences

Nicole Bradley, 4B health studies. In 2005, Bradley spent her two work terms continuing previous research for clinical trials on the effectiveness of palliative radiotherapy and quality of life for patients in the advanced stages of cancer. All aspects of research were experienced by Bradley including study design and proposal, ethics approval applications and publications of results. She has co-authored three published papers and has many more in the works.

* Environmental Studies

Heather O'Hagan, 4B environment and business. O'Hagan's initial responsibility during her previous work term involved applying and obtaining approval for a constructed wetland. However, she was also entrusted with managing shoreline surveillance crews after a malfunction with her employer's equipment caused 17,000 gallons of oil to escape into Lake Huron. Once the clean-up started, O'Hagan reported her findings to regulators, stakeholders and investigators.

* Science

Tasneem Nakhooda, 3B Science and Business. Nakhooda's last work term involved interfacing directly with leading clients from financial, wealth management and telecommunication companies in order to build customized financial statement solutions. Her technical expertise, along with her ability to multi-task and meet tight deadlines allowed Nakhooda to secure a major contract with a key client. She is also active on campus as an executive member of UW's SCRUBS (Science Committee of Revolutionary Undergraduate Business Students).

National Co-operative Education Week is coordinated by CAFCE, a national non-profit organization comprising more than 400 educators, employers and government officials. The organization is dedicated to ensuring the growth and quality of co-operative education programs across the country.

More information and selection criteria of the Co-op Student of the Year Award, visit www.cecs.uwaterloo.ca/students/news/awards.html

March 17 was Laurier Day, and hundreds of prospective students came from all over to take part in the open house and experience Wilfrid Laurier firsthand, some of the current students wanted to share their own experiences from their time here.

“The academic quality goes hand in hand with the small class sizes, where professors really get a chance to focus on the topics that interest the students,” says Sylvia Chan, a second-year Communications and English student.

Duany Diaz, another second-year student majoring in English and Medieval Studies, remembers some of the amazing and memorable professors she had in first year. “The profs make the class interesting – I actually look forward to their lectures. But the best thing about Laurier is how small the campus is. I like the idea of a smaller, close-knit community. There’s a better chance to get to know more people, and it’s nice when professors actually recognize you.”

Ian Martin, a first-year History major, is pleased with his decision to attend Laurier.

“I originally decided to attend Laurier because of its excellent reputation and, like everyone knows,” he says, “it has a great, small-campus vibe. The professors are very approachable and the classes are a good size range.

“But when I got here,” he adds, “there’s so much more to do beside academics.”

“The athletic complex is great, especially with the addition of the new gym which is easily accessible almost any time of day if you want to get in a little extra activity in between classes,” he says.

A second-year Kinesiology student, Heather Lyons, knows all about the great athletic activities Laurier has to offer.

“There’s lots of new cardio and weight-training equipment in the fitness room that’s accessible for everyone,” she says, “and the intramural sports teams range from dodgeball to waterpolo, there’s swimming, aerobics classes and everything in between – there’s an activity for everyone, it’s easy to join in actively at Laurier.”

Laurier offers many other ways to get involved in extracurricular activities that aren’t just athletic. Lenna Titizian, who is a third-year Communications Studies student and the Editor-in-Chief for Blueprint, Laurier’s magazine, says it was the ability to get involved that has made her years at Laurier great. During her first tour around campus, Lenna was shown the Student Publications’ (WLUSP) office. She wrote for Blueprint in first year and applied to be the Editor-in-Chief in second year.

“That experience has taught me so much,” she says. “My involvement has helped me develop professional skills through workshops and conferences, has taught me management skills and has allowed me to discover my strengths and weaknesses.

“When I went to Laurier Day with some of my high school friends, I felt totally comfortable walking around on campus, and as someone who was very involved in high school, Laurier had many clubs and organizations to offer. But in the end, what made my decision was the program. I felt it had the right amount of flexibility and variety, and adding to that the overall atmosphere at the school, the closeness, and the opportunities I saw to get involved overshadowed the other schools.”

Martin also notes how it has been really easy to get involved with campus clubs and volunteer opportunities.

“Radio Laurier and campus clubs like those go through a really easy-to-follow evaluation process and use the behaviour-based hiring S.T.A.R.R. (Situation, Task, Action, Result, Relate) technique, which helped me develop interview skills that will prove to be valuable in the years to come,” says Martin.

Also at Laurier there are lots of campus activities and events, like concerts and charity events, there’s something for everyone. There are also lots of volunteering opportunities such as ERT and Foot Patrol, a student-run organization that takes calls from students who would like escorted walks (or even rides) home at night.

Volunteering is a great way to get involved because you’re also contributing to a good cause. It’s great to be part of keeping our campus and students safe.

“Walking around campus late at night is never an issue,” says Diaz, “with Foot Patrol and Security always cruising around in their cars.”

With Laurier being such a great, close community, it’s easy to feel safe and right at home on campus. As a first-year Business student living in Residence, Christina Rooney has loved the experience.

“It has been wonderful living on campus. It only takes about five minutes to walk from one end of the campus to the other. I have more time to do other things like hang out with friends longer, grab something from Tim Horton’s, or actually hand in an assignment on time!”

Edmund Adderley is an international student who came to Canada to go to university. Like many, he decided to come to Laurier because of its size.

“It’s easy to stay in contact with everyone because, chances are, you’ll run into them on campus,” he says. He also explains how, as an international student, he is limited to working jobs on campus.

“Career Services is great to me,” says Adderly, “All the student jobs are figured out around your own schedule, so you never have to worry about conflicts.”

Off-campus life is great too.

“I chose to attend Laurier because of the community the University resides in,” says Chan, “With two universities and a college in the town of Waterloo – this is literally a university town where everything caters to the students – what more can one ask for?”

Waterloo is a city that can gratify any type of person. Laurier sits in the heart of downtown Waterloo, where there’s unique clothing stores, diverse restaurants and excellent bars. There are also art galleries, playhouses, and the Princess Twin Cinemas, which show independent and foreign films.

Waterloo Park and Columbia Lake are only a short jump away, and Waterloo is also home to the Laurelwood Conservation area, which offers great bike trails, camping, and swimming. Also close by there’s the Chicopee Ski Resort, for those who enjoy skiing or snowboarding in the winter.

The city of Waterloo itself is central to many of the exciting hotspots of Southern Ontario. Toronto is only an hour away, great beaches such as Grand Bend and Sauble, or the tourist attraction Niagara Falls are close enough for a day trip, and Stratford, home to the famous Stratford Festival, is also close by.

Recently, Waterloo was short-listed as one of the top seven intelligent communities in the world. And it's no wonder with RIM, the makers of the BlackBerry, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and two universities in town.

The two universities in town also work together. Students at Laurier can take courses at the University of Waterloo. Students at Waterloo often take courses at Laurier as well. It is clear though that Laurier is the school for those who like to stand out and get involved.

Laurier Day will feature walking tours, offer sessions on academics, admissions, financial aid and co-op, as well as allowing prospective students to tour the residences and speak to Laurier faculty, staff and students.

Tours of the brand new athletic facilities and talks with athletes and coaches will also be available all day, as well as the ability to experience Laurier’s music program with a free concert, and speak to international exchange students on opportunities to study abroad.

“You feel like someone here,” says Diaz. “It’s like you’re part of a big family. It’s a wonderful feeling. Laurier’s spirit is huge and infectious.”

For more information on Laurier or Laurier Day visit www.chooselaurier.ca.

WATERLOO - With participation rising by 25 per cent over last year, some of Ontario's top high school students will once again gather at the University of Waterloo next week for the Waterloo Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.

This year, the 33 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics regional competitions involve almost 30,000 high school students around the world. The Waterloo regional will take place March 23-25 at UW's Physical Activities Complex (PAC). The event will be open to the public throughout the competition.

At UW, approximately 700 students will compete in 30 teams representing schools in Southwestern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area as well as Michigan, Missouri and West Virginia.

The contest involves short games played by remote-controlled robots. The robots are designed and built within six weeks out of a common set of basic parts by a team of 15 to 25 students and a handful of engineer-mentors. The students pilot the robots on the field.

Next Thursday (March 23), teams will arrive at UW to uncrate their robots from 7:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pre-event photos and live video can be taken at this time. Practice rounds will take place Thursday and students can be interviewed in the pit area throughout the day. Media can sign in at the event registration table located in the blue north entrance foyer of the PAC and receive media packages.

"Through FIRST, kids realize that building a robot can be fun and cool," said Robert Gorbet, professor of electrical and computer engineering, who helped bring the regionals to the Waterloo campus. "It gives them very real role models, from outside the worlds of professional sports and entertainment. It's about opening their eyes to careers in math, engineering, science and technology -- and it works."

UW is one of two Canadian venues hosting a regional FIRST competition. The other Canadian regional takes place at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, March 30-April 1.

The annual competition now reaches more than 28,000 students on 1,100 teams in 33 regional competitions. The final championship will be held in Atlanta on April 27-29. The teams come from Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Great Britain, Israel and almost every U.S. state.

The event is described as "an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way."

The regional competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines and deadlines. FIRST competitions are open to the public and free to attend.

Regional competitions are often held at universities and involve teams cheered by thousands of fans over two-and-a-half days. A championship event caps the season. Referees oversee the competition and judges present awards to teams for design, technology, sportsmanship and commitment.

The contest had its start in 1989 in New Hampshire. The championship now is held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and expects to attract some 13,000 participants and 340 teams.

Universities, colleges, corporations, businesses and individuals provide $8 million US in scholarships to the student participants. Many of the awards are full four-year tuition scholarships. UW is the only Canadian university with a scholarship: $5,000 Cdn for a FIRST student accepted to the mechatronics engineering program.

The competition shows students that technological fields hold many opportunities and the basic concepts of science, math, engineering and invention are exciting and interesting. Involved engineers experience again many of the reasons they chose engineering as a profession and their companies contribute to the community while creating their future workforces.

Mark Breadner, a teacher at Woburn Collegiate Institute in Toronto, helped prepare the first Canadian team for the 2001 championship at Disney World. He felt that Canada should have its own regional event, in addition to the 16 regionals south of the border.

In 2002, as a result of his efforts, there were 22 teams and the first Canadian regional was held at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. Two years ago, Breadner approached Gorbet at UW to discuss the possibility of the university becoming a second Canadian regional location. The idea received strong support and FIRST organizers named Waterloo an expansion site.

For information on the competition, how to volunteer at or sponsor the event, visit www.firstrobotics.uwaterloo.ca and www.usfirst.org

This year, the Government of Ontario has renewed its Silver sponsorship of the competition with a three-year commitment of $25,000 a year for 2006-2008.

Official sponsors for the 2006 FIRST Robotics Waterloo Regional Competition include: Gold Sponsor -- Research In Motion Ltd., $50,000; Silver Sponsors -- Government of Ontario, $25,000; Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC), $25,000; and UW, $25,000.

WATERLOO -- The University of Waterloo opened a new exciting chapter in its history today with the official groundbreaking for its School of Pharmacy and Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus.

The event was held at the future site of the latest UW expansion project: the northwest corner of King Street West and Victoria Street in Kitchener's core. George Smitherman, Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-term Care, was among the officials attending the ceremony.

"Today marks the realization of an important dream for both the University of Waterloo and the City of Kitchener," said Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr. "And this wouldn't be happening without a unique collaboration between two organizations with vision. We're very proud of this project, it's an absolutely remarkable investment in the future of our city."

"It is truly a historic day for our university and for Waterloo Region as we embark on this innovative development," said UW President David Johnston. "We are so fortunate to have a committed partner like the City of Kitchener, that believes in this project as passionately as we do. The School of Pharmacy will mean great things for Kitchener, for UW, and for the future of health care."

"After so many months of hard work, it is incredibly gratifying to see our new facility begin to take shape," said Jake Thiessen, Hallman Director of the School of Pharmacy.

"We have the privilege of starting from a blank slate, at a world-class University, and we have been embraced by this community in an unprecedented way. Our building will reflect our desire to be a fundamental part of the community, and to expand the horizons for Pharmacy in Canada."

The school will welcome 120 undergraduate students in September 2007. It will be the only co-op pharmacy program in Canada and will focus on developing breadth and diversity in the student experience. At full completion, the pharmacy school is expected to be home to 480 undergraduate students, 70 graduate students, 30 faculty members and 20 administrative staff.

The innovative project builds on Kitchener's $30-million commitment and gift of land to the University of Waterloo. The School of Pharmacy's dynamic teaching, research and commercial collaboration will bring new and vibrant dimensions to meet the health-care needs of area residents and advance health care in Ontario.

Anchored by the new School of Pharmacy, the UW Health Sciences Campus will ultimately include a satellite of McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, an optometry clinic and the Centre for Family Medicine, a residency program for students wishing to specialize in family medicine.

The Health Sciences Campus will attract a wide range of health professionals and address the need for expertise in health technology, health informatics, biosciences, population studies and biomedical engineering, while filling the urgent demand for more pharmacists and doctors in Ontario.

Excavation into the still-frosty ground just west of the central plant has begun in preparation for construction of the new Centre for Advanced Photovoltaic Devices and Systems.

Described by Siva Sivoththaman, an electrical and computer engineering professor, as "a comprehensive research and development centre," the facility will bring together researchers in materials, microelectronics and back-end electronics from both engineering and science. Their mission: "To make an impact in terms of affordable technology, as opposed to performance at any cost."

The advantages of photovoltaic technology -- which converts sunlight directly into electricity -- are that it's "clean, very green, renewable energy that doesn't burn any fuel, frees you from the power grid, decentralizes power generation, has no moving parts, almost no wear and tear, and requires minimal maintenance," Sivoththaman explains. "It's one of the best renewable energy technologies.

"One quite serious problem: it is expensive. Photovoltaic now costs three to five times more than standard electricity." Pushing the price up is the cost of base materials and fabrication. More than 90 per cent of PV technology now uses crystalline silicon. "We need lower-cost silicon-based and other materials. We need new processing technology compatible with the new low-cost materials. And we need to move away from the classical microelectronic culture for materials and processing technology." He's optimistic that research at Waterloo can uncover a way to bring the cost down to a level comparable to the grid -- making PV technology cheap enough to use in his own home. "So far, some labs have concentrated on materials, some on processing, some on systems. The new centre is certainly unique in Canada and North America in that it encompasses all aspects of photovoltaic research. It's the only way to go if we want to make an impact." He expects short-term research will focus on reducing costs, with longer-term studies aimed at developing new materials and technology, such as organic semiconductors, thin film materials and lower-cost silicon technologies.

The project has participants from UW (Sivoththaman, Roydon Fraser, Tong Leung, Arokia Nathan and Andrei Sazonov) as well as the University of Toronto, York, Western and Saskatchewan, plus Natural Resources Canada and other agencies. "Having a physical space with the right infrastructure will really make a difference, says Sivoththaman. "We need to have materials, fabrication, et cetera, all in one spot. We don't currently have such a facility."

The 15,000-square-foot building -- a little bigger than the University Club -- has a total budget of around $12 million. That includes $3.2 million in construction costs, with the rest going for research equipment. It's being financed by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Innovation Trust, plus a strong in-kind donation from Spheral Solar Power (ATS-SSP) that will provide crystal growth facilities, thin film facilities, a full range of device fabrication facilities for solar cells, a full range of testing and measurement facilities, rooftop real-time testing, module design and fabrication, and a demonstration room.

Expected to be operational in 2007, the venture will have high energy requirements. "The building is technically-driven, but we are installing solar panels on the roof to supplement energy needs," Sivoththaman says. Waterloo was the obvious site for the centre, he adds, with its proximity to ATS-SSP, "the biggest fabrication facility in Canada. Industry feedback is very important."

As the world hits peak oil production, there is keen interest in finding the next great fuel source. Many hope that hydrogen can be harnessed and that by the end of the 21st century we will all be driving hydrogen-powered cars.

Ironically, that's not the hope of Xianguo Li, a UW professor of mechanical engineering and a hydrogen fuel cell researcher. Though his research is focused on improving hydrogen fuel cells so they could be used in everybody's car, he doesn't want them to be the sole option. Instead, he espouses the notion of diversity. "The second law of thermodynamics, in essence, states that every energy process has an impact," said Li. "Biomass, solar, wind, hydrogen, if any of these took a dominant position in the market they would have major disadvantages."

Li cites London or Paris 100 years ago: everyone used carriages pulled by horses to get around, and that meant there were horse droppings everywhere. At a time of poor sanitation and street infrastructure, that led to a lot of disease, not to mention the smell.

Then, a novel device known as the automobile came along. It ran on oil, which was in vast supply throughout the world, and the only thing it released was a little smoke that vanished into the air. Perfect solution, right? Only a few decades later we learned in a hard way -- like the Los Angeles smog -- that it was not perfect, after all.

Li believes the same would be true if hydrogen dominated the energy market. "Often, in history, we hail a new technology as a major step forward, only to realize its horrible side effects later, and we had to spend tremendous effort to eradicate those effects. It all comes back to the principle that you can't get something for nothing." Instead of one energy source dominating, Li believes the answer is energy diversity and that hydrogen fuel cells can play a large part, such as for automobiles in urban areas.

The mechanical engineering researcher has been working to make fuel cells less expensive, more reliable and more user friendly. "The real world is not kind to cars like labs are, so we have to design better and robust engines that can be easily made and maintained."

One of the ways that the life and reliability of hydrogen fuel cells could be improved is through optimizing how many fuel cells are in operation at any given moment. Not as much power is needed for idling at a red light as for cruising at 100km/h, so Li's research team is developing a technique that can determine how many cells need to be activated.

As hydrogen technology develops and gains acceptance, Li hopes that people will temper the desire to use it everywhere with the knowledge that all energy systems have negative impacts. "If we use any energy on a worldwide scale, there can be lots of problems, but if we use it on a small scale we should be okay."

TORONTO, March 10 - In bargaining negotiations with Ontario colleges that went for more than one year, it would appear the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) wasn't focused on the issue of class sizes in the colleges.

In fact, in more than one year of bargaining, OPSEU only tabled a specific proposal on class size once - on March 6, 2006, the final day of bargaining.

The record at the bargaining table would appear to contradict the public assertions by OPSEU's leadership that class size is an issue in the OPSEU strike at Ontario's 24 colleges.

Perhaps Ted Montgomery, the lead negotiator for OPSEU, can clear up this confusion when he speaks with the media this morning.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ontario's colleges maintain the OPSEU strike is unnecessary and that OPSEU's actions are unfair to students.

On the key issues, the colleges have provided a good offer to OPSEU that includes:

- A 12.6-per-cent increase in salary over four years, which would move the new maximum salary to $94,277 by April 2009
- An increase over four years for two-step coordinators (faculty who have additional coordinating duties) that would move their new maximum salary to $99,303
- No increase to workload, which would maintain the average teaching time in the classroom at 14 hours per week.

Currently, the average class size in Ontario colleges is 28. The colleges have been hiring full-time faculty and will continue to hire full-time faculty.

We know everyone is concerned about the impact of the work stoppage on our students. We are very disappointed that OPSEU has chosen to strike.

We expect you are hearing many rumours about what happened in the bargaining, what the management team was proposing and what OPSEU was proposing. We think it's important that everyone is clear about the issues. This letter is intended to explain the major positions on the table and why we are unable to accept the Union's demands.

The Council has posted the last management position tabled and the last position tabled by OPSEU on the Council's website so that you may verify the accuracy of this information (www.TheCouncil.on.ca).

Cost of Union's Proposals

We were unable to agree with the Union's last position, which contained higher salary demands than management's offer of 12.6% over four years, costly changes to workload (which we will explain in greater detail), and across-the-board limits on class size.

We estimated that this new proposal would cost upwards of $200 million annually. In fact, OPSEU's last position on March 6 was more expensive than its previous position.

To put this $200 million in perspective, we have explained to OPSEU that the recent government funding announcements for 2005-06, as welcome as they are, only add up to $100 million in new money for the system. This represents approximately a 4.5% increase in college funding. Of the $100 million, about $87 million was dedicated to Quality Improvement.

Each College decided how to address its students' most critical needs. This means a variety of new investments were made such as hiring new full-time faculty, improving student services and upgrading library and technical resources. Improving quality cannot solely be about reducing existing faculty's student contact time.

As you know, the government has announced a tuition fee increase. If every College Board implemented the full tuition fee increase for every college student, it would still only pay 10% of the Union's demands.

We explained to the Union that no settlement could be reached so long as these demands remained on the table.

Management's Monetary Offer

To reiterate our position, management's offer is 12.6% over four years with no increase to workload. Those individuals who move up the grid during the course of this agreement will receive even larger percentage increases. The new maximum salary will be $94,277. In addition, two-step coordinators will have their maximum salary moved to $99,303.

This percentage increase is consistent with the settlement reached with our Support Staff and with other public sector settlements. It also ensures that Ontario's college faculty remains the best paid among all ten provinces, although we are the lowest funded system per student in the country. The differential between the salaries of high school teachers and college faculty will continue to positively increase for our faculty. In 2002, faculty salaries were $1,189 above the most highly paid secondary school teachers. By 2008, that will have risen to $4,793.

Union's Workload Demands

A lot of time has been spent discussing workload issues. The Union continues to demand that the Colleges accept significant across-the-board changes to the existing workload formula. Apart from the costs of these proposals, which we will explain below, we are very reluctant to make broad changes to the existing formula because of the current difficulty with using a single formula to measure the effort needed to properly prepare, deliver and effectively evaluate the thousands of different courses delivered within the Colleges.

We have acknowledged that it is important that the formula be adjusted to more equitably distribute workload amongst our faculty. We believe that the Union's across-the-board proposals would exaggerate these inequities. A "one size fits all" solution does not meet the diversity of our academic programming. Different programs might require different solutions.

OPSEU's specific workload proposal requires the Colleges, when assigning workload to each faculty member, to increase the time attributed for preparation by 100% and to increase the hours attributed for evaluation by 40%. We estimated this would require the Colleges to hire approximately 1,500 more faculty to deliver the same number of programs to the same number of students. A very conservative estimate of the cost of this demand is $135 million. This across-the-board solution would not address specific inequitable situations or allocate money efficiently to correct problems with particular programs.

On Monday, March 6, before talks broke down, the Union provided an optional workload proposal that was as costly and unworkable as the first proposal. Currently, each faculty member is credited with 5 hours of time for complementary functions prior to course assignments being made. Management had proposed 1 additional hour be credited for further out-of-class assistance to students. In addition to the hour, the Union proposed that each faculty be credited with an additional 3 complementary hours, and an additional 2 hours per week for any teacher who uses electronic delivery in his/her courses. In this day and age, almost all teachers are using computers to enhance their students' learning outcomes. These provisions when taken together would result in 11 hours of work being credited prior to any teaching assignment being determined for a teacher.

Also on March 6, the Union for the first time also proposed to place across-the-board limits on class size. Our difficulty with uniform limits is that the appropriate class size is dependant on the nature of the course and the teaching methods utilized.

The Union included many other limits on a College's ability to assign work. These proposals can be seen under Option B in the Union's Offer dated March 6 which is posted on the Council's website at www.TheCouncil.on.ca.

Management's Workload Proposals

We have explained to OPSEU that none of management's proposals increase the workload of our faculty. To assist in addressing some of the issues raised by the Workload Task Force, we have made a number of proposals that are outlined below.

Pilot Projects

In order to explore alternative methods of workload allocation and build a consensus around appropriate changes we proposed that pilot workload projects be undertaken in Colleges. A Joint Union/Management Steering Committee would be set up to oversee the research needed for the pilot projects. While certain models have been proposed, departments would be able to determine their own projects. A maximum of 10% of faculty would be able to participate in the pilots.

To ensure that these initiatives are endorsed by the teachers and management, the emphasis has been placed on consensus. Where two-thirds of the teachers in a department or program and their manager agree, they will be able to implement a pilot project of their choice. Teachers who choose not to participate will continue to have their workload allocated in accordance with the existing formula.

The teachers and management team at the program level will find the best solutions for delivering their programs more effectively, fulfilling their needs as teachers and crafting a better quality experience for their students. We believe this will foster collegial decision making, which is consistent with a more professional approach to the distribution of work.

Averaging Workload Hours

Our offer also included a proposal to allow averaging of workload. A lot of misunderstanding has risen with regards to this averaging proposal.

The Management Workload Task Force Report recommended that teachers be allowed to voluntarily average their workload over the full academic year without increasing their average annual workload. This proposal is very different from the rolling average provisions which were in place over 20 years ago.

Our proposal includes significant protections for the teacher:

• Averaging is voluntary and can only be implemented if the teacher and the supervisor agree. It cannot be imposed. No teacher can be forced to average his/her workload.

• The teacher's average weekly workload cannot exceed the average weekly workload assigned to the teacher in the prior year. Averaging does not result in more work.

• The teacher cannot teach a greater number of weeks than they did in the prior year.

• The average number of teaching contact hours and workload hours cannot exceed the weekly limits in the existing formula.

• If as a result of averaging the prior year's workload, the teacher is not scheduled to work as many weeks during the school year, then this time is free time off for the teacher.

With these protections, the teacher can be assured that his/her workload will not increase as a result of averaging. The teacher's preferences, and the needs of the program, could thereby be better accommodated.

Sections

We have proposed that the limit on six sections be removed. The limit on the number of different courses that can be assigned remains at four. Workload is already accounted for in preparation and evaluation factors. A teacher will continue to be given credit for additional preparation time for each class assigned. A teacher also already gets evaluation credit for each student in classes regardless of the section.

Next Steps

It is very difficult to have a comprehensive discussion about mutual solutions when the parties remain hundreds of millions of dollars apart. We hope that OPSEU will find a way to engage in a dialogue that will result in a solution. We hope you have found this information useful. Please visit the Council's website to review the complete proposals (www.TheCouncil.on.ca).

TORONTO, March 8 - The McGuinty government's tuition fee increases will tax working families and increase pressure on student workers, especially graduate students, says the union representing most university workers in Ontario.

"Just weeks ago, Dalton McGuinty was standing in the legislature to proclaim his government as the most labour-friendly in years," said CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan. "With friends like that - who bring in tuition increases far greater than any income increases anyone has had - working families don't need enemies."

CUPE represents about 20,000 university workers, including students who work as teaching assistants, graders and lecturers.

"Universities are going to be paying with one hand and taking away with the other," said Janice Folk-Dawson, chair of the CUPE Ontario university workers coordinating committee. "We need a real plan for, and commitment to, improving post-secondary education, not just shifting funding from the public purse to private pocketbooks."

Instead, she noted, the McGuinty government is looking at using its new-found $1 billion revenue windfall to build a subway line to a university that students from working families won't be able to attend.

"Instead of undoing the damage of chronic underfunding and restoring access to post-secondary education, this government is choosing to continue the damage," Ryan said. "Over the past several weeks, the provincial Liberal government has been steamrolling its regressive policies over Ontarians. Everything from childcare to health care, pensions, and now tuition fees, is on the agenda.

"The end result is that Ontario families are going to suffer."

TORONTO, March 8 - Ontario college students were shocked today by the snap announcement of a tuition fee increase of up to eight percent in one year by the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Christopher Bentley.

"After participating in many stakeholder consultations, and after 26,000 college students across Ontario asked the government to cap tuition increases at the rate of inflation, the government ignored students plea," stated Matt Jackson, President of the College Student Alliance (CSA).

Prior to the announcement of the tuition freeze by the McGuinty government in 2003, annual tuition fee increases for all college programs were capped at 1.9 per cent. This meant an annual increase of $34 per year for most college students. Under the new McGuinty tuition framework, tuition fees will increase up to 4.5 per cent or $100 in the first year, and up to 4 per cent in the second and third year for students in most programs.

First year students in high cost or as more commonly known, deregulated tuition fee programs will see a maximum increase of 8 per cent in 2006-2007 until 2009-10. This will result in a one-year increase as high as $880 for students enrolled in the Computer Animation program at Sheridan College, earning the honour of Ontario's most expensive community college program of $11,000 per academic year.

"Students in high cost programs will be the hardest hit. While the government has maintained the cap on the number of programs institutions can class as "high cost", they have put already expensive programs further out of the reach for most working class Ontario families," added Jackson.

While news regarding next year's tuition fees was disappointing, the provincial government softened the blow to students by announcing improvements to up front grants for students from middle income families and a commitment to a new financial aid framework that makes costs, grants and loan amounts known prior to the start of the school year the 2007-2008 academic year.

"Although we are very disappointed in today's tuition fee announcement, this government has finally begun to improve the administration of our student financial aid and grants system. This will correct a major, systemic problem that no previous government has adequately addressed," said Tyler Charlebois, Director of Advocacy for the College Student Alliance.

TORONTO, March 8 - Students say that Premier Dalton McGuinty has taken a page from Mike Harris by allowing tuition fees to increase by as much as 20% for some programmes. In today's announcement, the Ontario government set out its plan to increase tuition fees by 4.5 to 8 percent per year for college and university students. With today's announcement, students in professional programmes such as law, medicine, and dentistry could see tuition fee hikes of over 20 percent if they complete their programmes over four years.

Under McGuinty's changes, tuition fees will increase by over 4% in their first year of studies and will steadily rise by 5% in each year of their programme - a potential 20% increase over four years. Those in professional programmes will see their first year fees increase by as much at 8% followed by 4% annual increases.

Although today's announcement will make more families eligible for up-front grants, changes to student financial assistance will mean less than ten percent of families will qualify for the grants. Moreover, most graduate students and professional students will not qualify for grants since they are not in their first or second year of studies.

"Medical students are already paying $16,000 per year," said Greener. "If tuition fees increase as set out by this proposal, these students could well be paying an additional $3,400 over the course of their programme.

"The government is attempting to deflect anger over tuition fee increases by pointing to changes in student assistance," said Greener. "But the fact is a 5% annual tuition fee increase over the next four years will effectively wipe-out more than the student financial assistance investment to be phased in over the same period. In fact, for every dollar invested in student aid more than a dollar will be clawed back through tuition fee increases."

"This is a bad day for Ontario families who are already struggling to pay high tuition fees. At a time when the Ontario government could well be sitting on a $1 billion surplus, today's announcement is shameful," said Greener. "Other provinces, with fewer resources than Ontario, have taken the lead by freezing and reducing tuition fees."

"The money allocated to colleges and universities through McGuinty's "Reaching Higher" plan last year was barely enough to bring Ontario funding up to the national average and only after five years," said Greener. "These tuition fee hikes are a huge step backward, both for this government and for working families."

Student Access Guarantee for Working Families

TORONTO - The McGuinty government is providing a student access guarantee that means no qualified Ontario student will be prevented from attending Ontario's public colleges and universities due to lack of financial support programs, said Chris Bentley, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities on March 8.

"As part of our plan to improve quality and access, our government is making it easier for students from working families to attend postsecondary education - Ontario students will have access to postsecondary education based on their ability to learn and not their ability to pay," Bentley said. The student access guarantee means that students in need will have access to the resources they need for their tuition, books and mandatory fees. Under the guarantee, the government will provide assistance to almost 200,000 students from lower- and middle-income families. Institutions that want to increase fees may do so only if two conditions are met: they participate in the student access guarantee, and any fee increases improve the quality of programs.

"We aim to give students the best postsecondary education possible," said Bentley. "Through our Reaching Higher Plan, our government is investing in more spaces, increased student aid and improved quality.

"But more needs to be done to enhance quality," the minister added. "To achieve our goal, we need an additional contribution from students. For every $3 extra Ontario invests under Reaching Higher in postsecondary education, we are asking students to contribute $1."

The student contribution will come from a regulated tuition framework. Increases will be capped, predictable and linked to improvements in quality and access. Institutions will have more flexibility to set fees, but only within this capped, regulated and predictable framework.

Under the plan, average tuition increases for the coming year will be limited to about $100 for almost 90 per cent of college students and about $200 for almost 70 per cent of university students. Increases in tuition fees may vary, but the majority of undergraduate students will see increases below 4.5 per cent. Tuition will be allowed to increase by a maximum average of up to five per cent at each institution.

For professional, graduate and certain other programs, institutions may increase fees up to a maximum of eight per cent in the first year of study, but only if the institutional average is five per cent or less, the student access guarantee is in place, and the money buys improvement in quality. Increases will be limited to four per cent in subsequent years of study. "As part of the government's commitment to students and to ensure Ontarians get the best value for their investment in postsecondary education, our government is also creating the Higher Education Quality Council to monitor quality and access," said Bentley. "The council is an independent body that will help us ensure continued improvement of the postsecondary education system by monitoring quality in the sector, access to postsecondary education and the accountability of institutions."

Quality improvements and access for students will also be ensured through multi-year accountability agreements that every institution is required to sign. The agreement sets out the institutions' commitments to quality, access, affordability and will include the student access guarantee.

Improving the quality and accessibility of higher education are two goals of Reaching Higher, the McGuinty Government Plan for Postsecondary Education. Through the plan, the government is investing $6.2 billion more in the province's postsecondary system over five years - the single largest infusion of funds in the sector in 40 years. This includes $1.5 billion more for student aid. The McGuinty government has also created almost 75,000 more spaces since 2002-03 and is aiming to increase participation further. New government investments at colleges and universities are already improving quality through more faculty, better student services, and access to the best libraries, laboratories and equipment for hands-on learning.

"We need to invest in our people. Our province's future depends on it," said Bentley. "This plan will deliver the investments, results and quality needed to ensure Ontarians have access to the best possible postsecondary system, and will finish their education capable of competing with anyone, anywhere in the world."

"History, Politics, and Public Life"
Date: Mar 8/06
Time: 18:00 - 20:30
Location: Senate and Board Chamber in Paul Martin Centre
Cost: none

Few people have the breadth of Rae’s experience in public life—former Premier of Ontario and Member of Parliament, international mediator, author of the Ontario government’s recent report on the future of post-secondary education, and Chair of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Fewer still are in as good a position as Chancellor Rae to reflect on politics and public life from a historical perspective.

A former student of history and political science, Rae lectures on these subjects at the University of Toronto and has written two books—From Protest to Power, a reflection on his time in Ottawa and at Queen’s Park, and The Three Questions, an essay on approaches to politics.

Rae’s talk, which is sponsored by the Laurier History Students’ Association, will be followed by a question and answer session.

Two professors in UW's faculty of engineering are heading a project to study the process that matches some 3,000 Waterloo co-op students with jobs each term.

Peggy Jarvie, director of co-op education and career services, says the complicated online and face-to-face activity of her department was "a process that really was screaming for in-depth comprehensive analysis". It's enormously complicated, she says, citing the mixture of senior and junior students in six faculties and dozens of academic programs, the range of large and small employers looking for students with various qualifications, timetable variations, and so on.

She says she visited the dean of engineering, Adel Sedra, in December and "proposed a joint project with engineering to look at the process . . . an excellent quality review with implementable results." What emerged was a study that's being headed by Kenneth McKay and Miguel Anjos, both of the management sciences department.

"We are doing something typical of a management sciences approach to the problem," says McKay, "doing a systematic and very detailed study of the tactical and operational parts of the CECS employment process. We are looking for both strengths and weaknesses -- policies, procedures, and practices that affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the system, focusing on the services provided to the main client groups: employers and students."

The project began with focus groups of CECS staff -- the people who know the process best -- and is moving on to gather data from students and employers. "We expect the first phase of the project to be complete by the end of the summer," says Jarvie.

She calls the co-op job match "an elegantly simple process, until you start peeling off the layers", and describes it as "an optimization problem . . . there's no perfect solution." At a minimum, she says, the new study will result in a better understanding of just how complex the process of applying, interviewing and job-matching is. Almost certainly, some small improvements will become obvious. "And it's more likely that there are some substantial changes that could be made -- practical, down-to-earth business solutions."

Best of all, she says, the project can be shown off to employers as an example of academic knowledge applied to business needs: exactly what co-operative education is supposed to be about. "We'll be able to go to employers and say, we have used our internal expertise, to do here what our students learn to do!"

TORONTO - Education quality is the central issue as 9,100 Ontario college faculty, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, prepare for a strike set to start at midnight tonight (The release was issued 29 minutes after midnight).

Talks broke off after union negotiators tried without success to bargain changes to the collective agreement that would reverse the decline in education quality in the colleges, providing for smaller classes and more faculty so every college student would get more time, more attention, and more feedback.

Unfortunately, the employer's bargaining team wouldn't agree to OPSEU's demands on quality education issues, and even tabled last-minute concessions that moved the two-sides further apart. "The union will be going on strike to get exactly what Premier McGuinty says he wants for our students - higher quality education," said OPSEU president Leah Casselman.

"Over five days of negotiations, management did not table a proposal until 9:30 p.m. Monday, March 6. Incredibly, that last-minute proposal moves backwards from the offer that management had in place at the time of the strike vote," said Ted Montgomery, chair of the OPSEU bargaining team. "The management team's complete failure to bargain in good faith is shocking and deplorable. Management has wasted five days and never put an offer on the table until the last minute. Not one of the issues of quality has been addressed in their offer," he added.

Ontario's 24 community colleges are represented in bargaining by the College Compensation and Appointments Council. The faculty have been without a contract since Aug. 31, 2005.

TORONTO - Ontario colleges are disappointed that the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) has chosen to turn down a good offer and unnecessarily disrupt the school year for 150,000 full-time students.

"The colleges have provided a good offer to OPSEU that increases the maximum salary for faculty to more than $94,000, with no increase to workload," said Dr. Rick Miner, chair of the colleges' committee of presidents. "There is no reason for a strike and we are disappointed that OPSEU has chosen to unnecessarily disrupt the students' school year." The colleges have been negotiating with OPSEU for more than a year. The key elements of the colleges' offer to OPSEU are:

- A 12.6-per-cent increase in salary over four years, which would move the new maximum salary to $94,277 by April 2009
- An increase over four years for two-step coordinators (faculty who have additional coordinating duties) that would move their new maximum salary to $99,303
- No increase to workload, which would maintain the average teaching time in the classroom at 14 hours per week.

The colleges are investing in quality improvements, including hiring new faculty. Currently, the ratio of full-time faculty to students at Ontario colleges is 23 to one. The average class size in Ontario colleges is 28 students per class.

The colleges' offer to OPSEU would ensure that Ontario college faculty will be the best paid in the country, despite the fact that Ontario colleges receive the lowest per-student revenues in Canada.

"OPSEU should focus on what is best for students and return to the bargaining table," Miner said. "The OPSEU strike at Ontario's 24 colleges is unnecessary and is unfair to our students."

WATERLOO – One of the few experts who can apply mathematics to topics ranging from theoretical physics and voting rules will deliver two very different lectures when he visits Waterloo later this week.

Don Saari, director of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, will offer a math-based outline of the evolution of the universe on Thursday, March 9, at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. At Wilfrid Laurier University the next day, he will discuss how mathematical theorems allow people to understand several voting paradoxes.

“We are extremely fortunate to have someone of Dr. Saari’s prominence deliver these two lectures,” said Maria Gallego, a professor of economics at Laurier and one of the organizers of the lectures. “Few people have sufficient expertise to apply mathematics to such a range of topics.”

In the first talk, entitled The Chaotic Evolution of Newton’s Universe, Saari will describe how chaotic behaviour was discovered in the study of what is known as the Newtonian N-body problem and how that behaviour explains several celestial motions that appear strange. He will then provide a mathematical outline of the evolution of the universe under Newton’s laws.

Though this talk is on celestial mechanics, no prior background in the mathematics of the N-body problem is required. Thursday’s lecture will be delivered at 4 p.m. at Perimeter Institute.

Friday’s lecture is entitled From Disposing Arrow’s Dictator to Understanding All Those Mysteries about Voting. Saari will begin by outlining how Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem created the negative impression that no social decision method is fair, and then challenge that impression.

“When you explore why the theorem states what it does, some very benign interpretations immediately follow – interpretations that show how to replace Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem with positive conclusions,” explains Saari. “In this manner, we can understand all of the standard voting paradoxes and identify the optimal voting rule.”

Friday’s lecture will begin at 2:30 p.m. in room SBE 1230 of Laurier’s school of business and economics. Both lectures are open to the general public and admission is free.

The following week, Saari will deliver the Fields-Carleton Distinguished Lecture Series at Carleton University. The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, a Toronto-based mathematics research institution, is named in honour of John Charles Fields, the Canadian who established the Fields Medal – the premier award in mathematics, often called the Nobel Prize in mathematics.

Saari is distinguished professor of economics and mathematics at the University of California, Irvine, and director of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences. He also earned the university’s distinguished faculty award for research in 2004-05.

He was chief editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society for more than six years and has served on the editorial boards of several journals on analysis, dynamics, economics and decision analysis. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellow, the past chair of the U.S. National Committee of Mathematics and chair of the U.S. delegation to the 2002 general assembly of the International Mathematical Union.

The Newtonian lecture is being presented as part of Laurier’s speaker series in computational science and applied and statistical modelling (CSASM). CSASM was launched by Laurier professors Ilias Kotsireas and Roderick Melnik in 2004 to strengthen links between academia and industry. Its world-renowned speakers attract attention from universities and institutions across southwestern Ontario. To learn more, please visit http://www.mmcs.wlu.ca/csasm/.

The lectures were made possible by the support of various departments at Laurier and the University of Waterloo, as well as the Fields Institute and the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET.)

The University of Guelph is hosting scientists and conservation agencies from around the country March 9 and 10 to discuss the conservation of natural areas and their constituent plants and animals.

The gathering will include federal and provincial/territorial parks agencies, university researchers and conservation groups. Participants will share approaches to selection and design of parks and protected areas during a workshop sponsored by the Parks Research Forum of Ontario at the Ramada Inn.

U of G biologists Prof. Tom Nudds and PhD student Yolanda Wiersma were instrumental in bringing the event to Guelph. Both are part of a recent movement to apply scientific rigour to designing protected spaces in Canada.

Wiersma, a former Fulbright Scholar, will give one of the featured presentations at the forum. She will discuss diversity and representative protected areas for mammals in Canada Thursday at 1 p.m. Robert Pressey, a leading conservation biology expert from the University of Queensland, will give the keynote address at 9 a.m.

Nudds said that today’s preservation mantra is far different from when national parks such as Banff were created in the 1880s. Back then, national parks were playgrounds for the well-to-do and were considered “islands of civilization in a sea of wilderness.” Now they’re viewed as just the opposite: islands of wilderness in a sea of civilization. And rather than guarding those areas piecemeal and as an afterthought, groups from researchers to lawmakers and even industry are working to ensure their protection before allowing development such as forestry, mining and tourism, Nudds said.

That idea is embodied in recent legislation, from Canada’s National Parks Act of 2000 to a provincial parks bill currently making its way through the Ontario legislature. And it’s an idea that Wiersma has explored during her graduate studies at Guelph.

She has pinpointed about 50 candidate protected areas that collectively contain representatives of most of the country’s mammalian species. She hopes her studies will help protect natural lands in northern Ontario and across the country.

“I wanted to be a park ranger when I grew up,” said Wiersma, a native of Grimsby, Ont., who worked as an interpreter at Georgian Bay Islands and Pukaskwa national parks. “I was fascinated by the idea of protected areas.”

Presidents and rectors from Roman Catholic universities in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and North and South America will descend on St. Jerome's University for a week-long series of meetings that start today.

All are members of the Administrative Council of the International Federation of Catholic Universities, an organization of large and small post-secondary institutions around the world. This is the first time that the council has met in Canada.

The IFCU dates from 1924 and currently has some 200 member institutions around the world, including ten in Canada. They range from America's Georgetown, Marquette and Villanova to St. Peter's Pontifical Institute in Bangalore, India, and Uganda Martyrs University in Kampala.

Says the organization's web site: "Every Catholic university is unique, with roots in a specific country and region with a culture unlike any other. While these institutions are often compared, each has its own history, assets, problems and objectives, its specific way of finding a niche in the field of education, research and services and also of honoring its academic, cultural, social and spiritual commitments. . . . "From all the materials of the world, non-Catholics, and even non-believers, all work with us to carry out joint research, partnership and exchange projects. In the chorus of voices that calls for knowledge and justice, that champions universal science and awareness, the International Federation of Catholic Universities has its own, one with a specific tone."

The IFCU has its offices in Paris. Among its events this year will be a conference "Catholic Higher Education and Globalisation in Latin America", to be held in Brazil in April, and the IFCU's General Assembly in Bangkok in July.

A free public lecture will be offered in conjunction with the meetings, tonight at 7:30 in Sweeney Hall of St. Jerome's. Noel Sheth will discuss the interfaith dialogue between Hindus and Christians in a lecture titled "Hindu Avatara and Christian Incarnation: A Theological Comparison."

Sheth, the former president of Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth Pontifical Institute of Philosophy and Religion, India, is a graduate of Harvard University, a Jesuit priest and a professor of Indian philosophy and religion. He argues that both Hindus and Christians believe in the incarnation of God in the world -- a belief encapsulated in the Hindu concept of "avatara" -- and that members of each tradition can learn much from a Hindu-Christian dialogue.

The lecture is jointly sponsored by the Master in Catholic Thought program at St. Jerome's and the St. Jerome's Centre for Catholic Experience. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

TORONTO - Ontario colleges are urging the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) to work with colleges to reach a negotiated agreement and not take its faculty members on strike Tuesday.

"There is no reason for OPSEU to disrupt the students' education at this critical time in the school year," said Dr. Rick Miner, chair of the colleges' committee of presidents. "The colleges have provided a good offer to faculty and it is important the union works with us to reach an agreement."

The key elements of the colleges' offer to OPSEU are:

- A 12.6-per-cent increase in salary over four years, which would move the new maximum salary to $94,277 by April 2009
- An increase over four years for two-step coordinators (faculty who have additional coordinating duties) that would move their new maximum salary to $99,303
- No increase to workload.

The colleges continue to make important investments into quality education, including investments into student support services, up-to-date teaching and curriculum resources, new library resources, new instructional equipment and building upgrades.

The colleges are also investing in faculty. In fact, with the colleges' current offer, Ontario college faculty will be the best paid in the country, despite the fact that Ontario colleges receive the lowest per-student revenues in Canada.

"Our students have every reason to expect classes to continue as usual this week," Miner said. "It is important that OPSEU works with us to get an agreement and ensure that classes continue."

More than 20 schools in the Region are receiving grants for program enhancements in the Arts, Athletics and Technology, as well as to support school equity and school culture, and to support Faith formation programs. In addition, grants will again be awarded to support the 3rd Annual Secondary Schools Catholic Youth Leadership Conference, the 2nd Annual Elementary Schools Catholic Leadership Conference and Awards of Distinction for graduating students in five secondary schools.

The foundation, with a community-based board of directors, has only been active for three years but is determined to support the Region’s Catholic schools to bridge the gap between provincial government funding and what is believed necessary to offer our children a quality, comprehensive, Catholic education.

The foundation is active in friend-raising and fundraising through multiple events and donor programs. In April 2005, the Foundation sponsored the highly successful student production of Les Misérables presented at the Centre In Square, Kitchener. This production involved more than 200 students and staff from five secondary schools and 22 elementary schools.

The ultimate goal of the foundation is to establish endowment funds dedicated to supporting comprehensive programming in all Waterloo Region Catholic schools.

TORONTO - The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) is pleased with a number of aspects of the government's new educational bill, the Student Performance Bill.

"Minister Kennedy has made good on his promise to give teachers a majority on their governing body with this legislation," said Rhonda Kimberley-Young, OSSTF president. We are concerned, however, with the limits being placed on the democratic rights of teachers to run for office for the Ontario College of Teachers. The proposed legislation falls short of their commitment to ensure a significant majority for teachers on the governing body," Kimberley-Young added.

"In eliminating the unnecessary Ontario Teacher Qualifying Test and streamlining the Teacher Performance Appraisal process for new teachers, this bill provides much needed supports to teachers entering the profession," concluded Kimberley-Young.

"OSSTF approves of the government's move to eliminate the minimum teacher workload provisions in the bill. This will only enhance student learning conditions. The addition of two more professional development days is also welcome, but we hope that these days will be provided for all educational workers. Currently, professional development is often provided to teachers, but not to other employee groups including student service professionals, educational assistants and office administrators to name a few," Kimberley-Young said. "The whole school team will be instrumental in fulfilling many of this government's policies including those addressing school safety and anti-bullying. Therefore, all educational workers should receive the additional Professional Development Days," concluded Kimberley-Young.

WATERLOO - The University of Waterloo hosts its fourth annual "International Celebration Week" to raise campus awareness of different cultures, starting Friday and ending March 10.

Organized by a committee of staff and students, International Celebration Week was developed to build understanding of the diverse cultures in the UW community. The week will provide an informative, educational and entertaining look into unique aspects of many different nationalities, as well as promote internationalization at UW.

"The goal of the week is to provide an opportunity for students from all countries to learn more about and interact with the many different cultures on campus," said Darlene Ryan, Director of the International Student Office.

Starting off the week will be the International Development Student Conference held at the Davis Centre. The conference theme is "Effective Development through Foreign Aid." On Friday evening, the keynote speaker is Naresh Singh, the Director-General for Governance and Social Development at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Also starting on Friday will be UW's Warrior Weekend with an international spin to the events. Some of the international events at Warrior Weekends will include salsa dance lessons, henna tattoos, origami making, and multi-cultural cuisine for students to try international dishes like spanakapita, spring rolls and samosas.

There will also be entertainment provided by the Aboriginal Student Society, which will be bringing in women drummers from Mino Ode Kwewak Ngamowak.

Staying with the international food theme, Renison College and UW's Food Services will be serving different types of food every day of the week, ranging from Greek to Chinese.

An event always popular with the students is the 2005 World's Best Commercials that will be presented by the Princess Cinema in the Humanities Theatre, Hagey Hall, at 8 p.m. on Monday. As part of UW's Diversity Campaign, the documentary film Scared Sacred will be screened at the Humanities Theatre next Wednesday.

For some of the practical elements of International Celebration Week, UW's Co-operative Education & Career Services department will present two sessions: "Work Search Strategies for International Students" and "Working Effectively In Another Culture." Both sessions will take place at the Tatham Centre on Monday and Tuesday.

The first session will help international students learn effective approaches to search for work in Canada after graduation. The second will assist anyone planning to work in another culture, exploring the impact of culture and intercultural communication on the work environment as well as presenting strategies for success in a different work culture.

For a complete list of scheduled activities and events, visit www.international.uwaterloo.ca/iso/IEW or contact Darlene Ryan at the International Student Office.

The offices of Resource Planning and Analysis and Enrolment Statistics in Registrarial Services are being consolidated to help the University of Guelph meet an increasing demand for accountability and to aid in integrated planning efforts.

“Bringing together these units and combining the diverse analytical and operational expertise of the staff will support the development of more focused and diverse databases to support decision-making,” says Maureen Mancuso, provost and vice-president (academic).

She says there’s been a long history of debate about the sometimes overlapping roles and activities of the two units. In addition, with the integrated planning process underway and government and external agencies requiring increased accountability, “we need to allocate our current fragmented research and analytical resources more effectively.”

The new office will be overseen by Brian Pettigrew, registrar and director of strategic enrolment management. His title will be renamed to assistant vice-president (institutional research and planning) and registrar to reflect the new position.

Pettigrew was named registrar in 2002 and director of strategic enrolment management in 2005. A BA graduate of Guelph and an MSW graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, he joined U of G in 1976 as a counsellor in the Counselling and Student Resource Centre and later served as director of a student-focussed institutional research unit, the Student-Environment Study Group. From 1993 to 1995, he was the senior staff person with the University’s Strategic Planning Commission and subsequently named strategic planning change auditor. In 1996, he was appointed project manager in the Office of the Vice-President (Academic) and oversaw implementation of the Colleague student system.

Among other things, the priorities of the consolidated institutional research and planning office include enhancing student enrolment and funding models; advising on policy development; responding to increased internal and external accountability and assessment needs; and improving information dissemination and analysis.

Productivity, culture, and most of all money will be on the agenda Friday February 24 for a group called together by the premiers of Canada's two largest provinces to discuss the future of post-secondary education.

David Johnston, president of UW, is among the participants at "Competing for Tomorrow", a one-day event in Ottawa organized by Dalton McGuinty of Ontario and Jean Charest of Québec on behalf of the "Council of the Federation", the leaders of all the provinces and territories.

"Equipping Canadians with the education and skills they need to reach their full potential is imperative for all governments in Canada," said the letter of invitation from McGuinty and Charest. "That is why Premiers, as the Council of the Federation, have launched Competing for Tomorrow: A Postsecondary Education and Skills Summit."

The event involves "a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including student, college, university, business and labour representatives. Stakeholders will examine key issues and challenges they are facing in postsecondary education (PSE) and skills training. The summit will help shape a Canada-wide strategy on postsecondary education and skills -- a strategy that will help establish a path forward so that citizens have access to the quality education and training they need, and Canada needs, to thrive, in the 21st century."

In groups, they'll discuss seven central issues: Access to Postsecondary Education and Skills Training; Quality and Funding of Postsecondary Education and Skills Training; Participation in the Labour Force; Skills for the 21st Century Workplace; Research and Innovation Capacity; Lifelong Learning for All; and Needs of Rural and Northern Areas.

The context for the premiers' summit includes the rising political issue of how revenues and expenses are shared between the federal and provincial levels of government. Says the premiers' discussion paper: "The federal government is a crucial partner in postsecondary education and skills training. However, federal government support has not kept up with emerging needs. Federal transfers through the Canada Social Transfer in support of postsecondary education and social programs were $10.6 billion in 1994-95 and stand at $8.4 billion today. It would take $2.2 billion just to restore these transfers to 1994-95 levels and considerably more to ensure that Canadians will continue to benefit from the postsecondary education and skills training systems that they need in the 21st Century.

"Like other Canadians, premiers are aware that substantial new investments will be required in postsecondary education and skills training in order for Canada to compete and thrive in a global economy. Many provinces and territories have invested their resources in these areas, while recognizing that a new partnership with the federal government will be essential for Canada to pull ahead of its competitors.

"It is essential for all of us to work collectively and respond in a coordinated way to international competition and new technologies. The most important initiatives to bolster prosperity require close federal-provincial-territorial as well as stakeholder cooperation. The premiers have invited the federal government to meet with them in order to agree on a Canada-wide education and training strategy and an adequate level of federal funding through the Canada Social Transfer."

The main focus of this Committee includes:
public consultation
identification of key stakeholders and community contacts
responding to the key strategies formulated.

For more information on the Regional Growth Management Strategy and the Rapid Transit Initiative, visit: www.region.waterloo.on.ca/rgms.

What Type of Commitment will this Require?

The Committee meets approximately once every 6 weeks. Meetings are from 5-8 p.m. Dinner is included. Students will be appointed for a one-year term with a possibility of renewal. Committee members may be invited to participate in subcommittees or other events on a voluntary basis.

Why should I apply?

This is an ideal opportunity to voice your thoughts and ideas about the future of Waterloo Region. How should we accommodate population and employment growth? How do we address environmental concerns? What role can urban design play in creating quality spaces? How will transportation and land-use planning affect our urban environment?

In addition, you will have a chance to:
Learn about regional initiatives and help shape their implementation

Discuss and debate important issues

Meet other members of the community and staff who share your commitment to Waterloo Region

But most importantly, your perspective will be heard and VALUED!

How will candidates be chosen?
One representative will be selected from Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Waterloo and Conestoga College. Candidates will be evaluated based on availability, and reasons for wanting to participate in the Committee and knowledge of Waterloo Region.

How do I apply?

Fill out the attached application form

Include any other material that would be helpful for the selection process (such as a resume or reference letter)

Fax, mail or drop off your application by Friday February 24, 2006

Email applications will also be accepted if all required information is provided

For more information, contact:

Brooke Lambert, Planner
Region of Waterloo
150 Frederick Street, 5th Floor
Kitchener ON N2G 4J3
Phone: 519-575-4500 Ext. 3113
Fax: 519-575-4449
Email:lbrooke@region.waterloo.on.ca

The University of Guelph is raising awareness of intellectual freedom by celebrating Freedom to Read Week Feb. 26 to March 4.

Sponsored by the Book and Periodical Council of Canada, Freedom to Read Week encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“It’s important that libraries remain places where knowledge can be shared and that librarians take an active role in that responsibility,” said Michael Ridley, U of G’s chief information officer. “People should be free to discuss controversial issues, including those that some members of society may consider to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable.”

On March 2 from 2:30 to 4 p.m., the McLaughlin Library presents “Forbidden Knowledge and Dangerous Ideas” in the Williams Café area. Based on discussions arising from a new first-year seminar course of the same name, the event will explore a variety of ideas and perspectives that have been deemed so controversial that they’ve been strongly opposed and resisted through banning, censorship, destruction and silencing.

Students from the seminar course will display posters they’ve made that relate to banned books, cloning, sex, education, art, photography and music to express their ideas and generate open dialogue about censorship and the control of information.

Throughout the week, students, staff, faculty and visitors to campus are encouraged to browse the library’s restricted-access collection and a banned-book shelf on the first floor of McLaughlin to learn more about why the freedom to read is crucial to academic libraries.

“We chose the tools on display because they represent much of what was used over the last 40 years in the Library,” said Brown, who also chuckled about how some of them “looked like instruments of torture.”

One of the most unique devices on display was a punch card, which predates the CD-ROM, the three-and-a-half-inch floppy, and even the five-and-a-quarter-inch floppy disk as a recording medium for holding information.

The event will also mark the official opening of the new Information Commons, an area located on the second floor of the Library, which is also home to the Reference Desk and Information Technology (IT) and gives students extra space to study.

The opening will represent the second stage in creating an exciting hub of activity, which in the future will house a new and bigger front desk, shared by IT and Reference, as well as a “digital studio.” This digital studio will be a scanning centre for slides, texts, video and microfilm for students preparing for presentations or publishing a thesis or book.

Work for the digital studio renovation was made possible by donations from Alumni and Sunlife, the latter of whom donated in honour of their retired employee Robert Astley.

The official ceremony will open with refreshments and entertainment on Thursday, February 16, 2006, at 1:00pm. Following the opening, Library tours will commence at 2:30pm, and all are welcome to attend.

 Kitchener– The following letter will be sent home with Catholic school students on Thursday, February 16:

 Dear Parents/Guardians:

 As you may be aware from media reports, theOntariobranch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is planning a province-wide political protest against the Ontario Government. Since many staff members in our school system are members of CUPE, this protest has the potential to affect some of the services provided in our schools.

 Despite this potential disruption to some normal routines, I am writing to inform you that allWaterlooRegion Catholic schools will be open as usual on the day of the political protest – and all student transportation services will be running normally. However, we ask that you monitor the “Cancellations” page on our web site (www.wcdsb.edu.on.ca) for any late-breaking developments.

 The attached information will hopefully answer any questions you may have.

 Sincerely,

[original signed by Roger Lawler]

Roger D. Lawler
Director of Education

Q1: Should I send my child to school on the day of the CUPE political protest?

A1: Yes. All Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Waterloo Region will be open as usual and we will be working to minimize the impact of the strike on the regular activities of students.

Q2: Will student transportation be affected by the political protest?

A2: All yellow school buses and Grand River Transit buses serving Waterloo Region’s Catholic schools – as well as all taxis and special education routes -- will run on their normal schedules.

Q3: What provisions will be in place to assist those who must cross a picket line?

A3: CUPE has agreed to ensure its members will not harass or intimidate anyone who crosses a picket line. However, CUPE members will attempt to provide people with information about their political protest.

Q4: What if my child has a school trip scheduled for the day of the political protest? Will the trip be going ahead?

A4: All scheduled trips are planned to go ahead as scheduled. However, if information becomes available that the trip destination is a venue targeted by CUPE pickets, it may be necessary to reschedule the trip. Should this occur, information about the trip will be posted on the school board web site at www.wcdsb.edu.on.ca and will be made available to Waterloo Region radio stations for broadcast.

Q5: My group rents a school gym after-hours. Will the school be available that day?

A5: Yes – schools will be available as scheduled for community use activities.

Q6: Will the child care facilities located in Catholic schools be open on the day of the political protest?

A6: Yes – child care facilities located in our Catholic schools will be open as usual.

Q7: Will theSt. LouisAdult Learning Centres inKitchenerandCambridgebe affected?

A7: All classes and programs offered by the St. Louis Adult Learning Centres will be running as scheduled.

The provincial government today confirmed that the University of Guelph will receive $5 million in “quality improvement” funding promised the 2005 Ontario budget.

“Quality of education is important, so we took a leap of faith last year, hiring faculty and staff on the basis that support would be forthcoming,” said president Alastair Summerlee. “With greatest respect, we are very pleased with the new funding, but had we not received it, we would have been looking at reductions in faculty and further reductions in staff.”

Summerlee warned that universities are still under tight pressure to cover rising costs in electrical bills, salaries and benefits. He said that despite this announcement, all units will need to reduce their annual budget plans by two per cent as a contribution towards the university’s inflationary costs. He added that after many years of underfunding, U of G still needs monies to appoint an additional 110 faculty and the same number of staff to bring the university to the national average.

Last year, the provincial government said it would provide new money for quality improvement following the release of Bob Rae’s review of higher education, but specific amounts for each university were not revealed. U of G estimated that it would receive about $5 million for quality improvement and included that amount in its 2005/2006 operating budget, which had to be presented to the Board of Governors last April before the funding was confirmed.

“We listened carefully to the signals the government has been sending since the Rae review, and using this information, our staff did an excellent job of making budget assumptions and in predicting additional revenues for 2005/2006,” Summerlee said. “Today’s announcement shows that our assumptions were correct.”

The bulk of Guelph’s $5 million in quality improvement funding has gone to support the new faculty and staff hires in 2005/2006. The money is also supporting educational resources such as library acquisitions and extended hours of operation, a media centre in the College of Arts, additional co-op educational opportunities, and classroom teaching support.

In all, Ontario universities will receive $124 million from the Quality Improvement Fund for 2005/2006. To qualify for the money, universities must sign accountability agreements that spell out the improvements to be made and the results to be achieved. “The Quality Improvement Fund is part of the McGuinty government’s plan to invest $6.2 billion in Ontario’s post-secondary system to ensure that our students get the very best education possible,” said Liz Sandals, MPP for Guelph-Wellington. “I am pleased that this $5 million will provide the University of Guelph with additional support.”

U of G also expects to receive quality improvement funding that will be included in its preliminary 2006/2007 Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities budget, which is currently being developed. As in previous years, there is still much uncertainty about prospective government revenues, Summerlee said. A series of public meetings about the budget are planned in the next three months, and a complete schedule, along with the preliminary budget assumptions, is available online.

The provincial government also announced this week that it’s investing more than $10 million this year to help postsecondary institutions improve access to opportunities for francophone, disabled, first-generation and Aboriginal students. “We are very pleased by this news, as it was one of the recommendations that was made by our Presidential Task Force on Accessibility,” Summerlee said.

Satellite medical school announced for downtown Kitchener health sciences campus

A satellite of McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine will be located on the University of Waterloo Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus. Anchored by the new UW School of Pharmacy, the Health Sciences Campus is the catalyst behind yesterday’s announcement of a satellite medical school.

Chris Bentley, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, announced the news to a gathering of about 100 community representatives from UW, McMaster, local governments, business and the medical community, at Victoria School in downtown Kitchener.

Bentley noted that in the first year of operation there would be 12 new places for the Kitchener satellite. Intake will jump to 15 students each year thereafter.

UW President David Johnston called it a “quantum leap” for local community health care.

"This is a day for the history books of Waterloo Region, McMaster University, and the University of Waterloo. The synergies are wonderful, with the satellite of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine co-locating with our School of Pharmacy on the Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus. We are so fortunate that the City of Kitchener has been the catalyst in developing the Health Sciences Campus, providing funding of $30 million to the School of Pharmacy, plus a gift of land at King and Victoria Streets."

"UW's goal in all of our health-related activities is to make a difference in the lives of people in this community; not to conduct research in isolation, but to translate our expertise into things that improve the quality of life and the quality of health care for our neighbours, our families, our friends," Johnston added.

“The McMaster satellite medical school announced by the province today, to be located in UW's Health Sciences Campus in downtown Kitchener, is great news for Waterloo Region. Not only are many of the doctors that train in our community likely to settle here, but the medical teaching network that accompanies such a school will significantly enhance local medical services,” said Kitchener MPP John Milloy.

Media hailed the announcement as a great leap forward for the community. The Record, K-W’s daily, said in a front page headline: “McMaster-UW alliance hailed as cure for doctor shortage” and noted in an editorial: “The provincial government's decision to place a satellite medical campus in Waterloo Region is one of the most significant announcements to come out of Queen's Park about this region in years. The satellite campus, one of four the government has just announced, will have far-reaching ramifications that are hard to over-estimate…”

"This is one of the biggest things that has happened to this community in a long, long time because health care is at the top of everybody's list," regional Chair Ken Seiling told the Record. "This is the single most important thing that can increase the number of doctors and specialists and increase the availability of procedures."

"This is a 10 on a scale of one to 10," said Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr in The Record. "It's taking us to the next level in terms of health provision . . . and the activity we anticipate in the downtown."

The first class is expected to graduate in May 2010. The Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, the second-largest medical school in Ontario, produces doctors faster than other schools -- in three years rather than four.

The Health Sciences Campus will attract a wide range of health professionals, and will address the need for expertise in health technology, informatics, biosciences, population studies and biomedical engineering, while filling the urgent demand for more pharmacists and doctors in Ontario. It will include the Centre for Family Medicine, a residency program for students wishing to specialize in family medicine.

The innovative project builds on Kitchener's $30-million commitment and gift of land to the School of Pharmacy. This dynamic teaching, research and commercial collaboration will bring new and vibrant dimensions to meet the health-care needs of area residents and advance health care in Ontario.

Drawing on UW's long-standing focus on co-operative education, whereby students alternate academic terms with work terms, the Health Sciences Campus will provide students with experience-based training, placements and practicums.

Among the benefits for the community in Waterloo Region:

* Health Sciences Campus will establish critical mass, providing a forefront interdisciplinary training and research cluster, as well as a focal point for the community. It emphasizes a team approach to health services delivery and the concept of shared care.

* Locating a medical school in Waterloo Region will improve attraction and retention of doctors to an under-serviced community. It is well known that a high percentage of physicians tend to practice where they are trained.

* McMaster University has agreed to give admission preference to medical school applicants from Waterloo Region and the surrounding area, which increases the probability of physician attraction and retention. Also, McMaster will recruit physician-teachers to Waterloo Region, again increasing the number of physicians in the community.

* The development of a primary care clinic and specialist clinics across the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) will improve community access to an integrated spectrum of health care services.

* UW is ready to collaborate with McMaster in several integrated teaching opportunities, including some joint learning with students in the School of Pharmacy, scheduled to open in September 2007. Others may include combined degrees in health informatics, public health, imaging and so forth.

* Integrated thinking and convergence of practices and technologies will maximize the productivity of financial resources. In other words, more value for dollars invested.

* Waterloo Region has the largest Ontario cluster of hospitals that are not currently teaching hospitals, providing an ideal opportunity for practicums and experienced-based learning.

* A dynamic community with innovative thinking as its hallmark, along with a rapidly growing population, will allow for transformation of research advances and knowledge into health benefits, economic opportunities and improved health care.

$14Million Investment Helps Hire More Instructors, Increase Student Resources

KITCHENER — Students at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College will have more teachers, learning resources and other supports due to $14,038,425 in additional funding from the McGuinty government’s new Quality Improvement Fund, John Milloy, MPP for Kitchener Centre announced today on behalf of the Honourable Chris Bentley, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.

The $14 million in funding for Waterloo Region’s post-secondary schools will be distributed as follows:

o $6,719,743 for the University of Waterloo

o $4,438,187 for Wilfrid Laurier University

o $2,880,495 for Conestoga College

“Our students are the most valuable asset we have for strengthening Ontario’s economic advantage and ensuring our future prosperity,” said Milloy. “This new funding at UW, WLU and Conestoga College is providing students in Waterloo Region with a higher quality education and improvements that they will benefit from immediately.”

In 2005-06, Ontario colleges will receive $87.3 million and universities will receive $124.2 million from the Quality Improvement Fund. To qualify for funding, colleges and universities must sign accountability agreements that spell out the improvements to be made and the results to be achieved.

The fund is part of the McGuinty government’s Reaching Higher plan, which will invest $6.2 billion more into the province’s postsecondary system over the next five years. The goal of the plan is to improve quality, accessibility and accountability in postsecondary education.

“After more than 10 years of under-funding and neglect by previous governments, the McGuinty government is rebuilding the foundations of learning so that our postsecondary students get the very best education possible,” said Chris Bentley, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.

BACKGROUNDER

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT FUND

The McGuinty government is providing more than $211 million to Ontario colleges and universities through the new Quality Improvement Fund. The fund will enhance the learning experience of students across the province by supporting quality and excellence initiatives at colleges and universities.

Eligible initiatives include: hiring more faculty and support staff, expanding library acquisitions, improving student services, encouraging postsecondary institutions to further develop their areas of specialty and promoting improvements across the post-secondary system.

Colleges will receive $87.3 million of the allocation and universities will receive $124.2 million. The money is part of a 14 per cent increase in operating grants to colleges and universities in 2005-06.

Waterloo Region’s three post-secondary institutions are receiving funding.

o $6,719,743 for the University of Waterloo to hire 20 new full time faculty members, upgrade the pharmacy, mechatronics and nanotechnology programs, improve educational resources, enhance student support services and strengthen outreach programs

o $4,438,187 for Wilfrid Laurier University to hire 23 full time and 13 part-time faculty members, upgrade educational resources such as multi-media equipment in classrooms, kinesiology teaching labs, microscopes and library resources. Funding will also help expand a service-learning initiative that involves students completing community placement practicum integrated into their course curriculum.

o $2,880,495 for Conestoga College to hire more faculty and support staff, increase its computer hardware, software and computer infrastructure, create a new Learning Centre to integrate exisiting peer tutoring services and create bridging programs for students with diplomas who want to continue to applied degree or other advanced accreditation programs.

Disbursements from the fund are based on the principles that every dollar will result in improvement and that there will be accountability. Institutions obtaining money from the fund must sign accountability agreements that set out how the money is to be spent and the expected results from these investments.

The Quality Improvement Fund consists of the:

- Advancing Quality Fund to encourage direct results such as new faculty and support staff, more educational resources and equipment, and better student services

- Supporting Excellence Fund to recognize each institution’s excellence in particular areas, such as a differentiated mission, a specialized niche or program leadership

- Change Fund to promote cross-institutional or system-wide improvements.

Improving the quality of higher education, increasing access, and ensuring accountability are the goals of Reaching Higher: The McGuinty Government Plan for Postsecondary Education. The $6.2 billion in additional money being invested under the plan is the single largest investment in postsecondary education in Ontario in 40 years.

A comic strip based on unique research by a University of Guelph professor has been selected for inclusion in a collection of the finest comics in North America.

“I’m delighted that it’s included,” said Terisa Turner of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. The graphic narrative titled Nakedness and Power will appear in the inaugural edition of Best American Comics 2006, to be published by Boston-based Houghton and Mifflin later this year.

Turner wrote the text for the nine-page comic strip with Guelph graduate Leigh Brownhill, who completed her MA in sociology and international development in 1994. The comic strip is illustrated by Seth Tobocman, co-founder of World War 3, a semi-annual publication of political cartoons. It focuses on a 2002 revolt against petroleum pollution led by nearly 600 Nigerian women and the subsequent support they received from women — and men — who took part in similar protests around the world.

“Every statement in the comic is 100-per-cent accurate,” said Turner, noting that many of the images were based on actual photographs. “By sharing our research in this way, we’re able to explain the struggle of these African women and the issues of survival they’re facing in a way that’s easy for a wide and diverse audience to understand.”

The women staged mass protests against the petroleum industry using the “curse of nakedness” as their weapon.

The curse of nakedness refers to a cultural belief held by many Africans that purposefully exposing the female genitalia to men who have caused anger results in “social death,” which in turn may lead to physical death, Turner said.

“We all come into the world through the vagina. By exposing the vagina, the women are saying: ‘We are hereby taking back the life we gave you.’ It’s about bringing forth life and denying life through social ostracism, which is a kind of social execution. Men who are exposed are viewed as dead. No one will cook for them, marry them, enter into any kind of contract with them or buy anything from them.”

Turner learned about the curse of nakedness while living in Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s, and she wrote about how women were using it against oil companies that were polluting their land. “I then began noticing the same tactic being used in Kenya in 1992, in the Niger Delta in 2002 and then on a world scale in 2003 as naked protests by women erupted on every continent to oppose the oil companies and the war in Iraq.”

Turner, who has been researching petroleum conflicts for more than 25 years, said the curse of nakedness is levied only under extreme circumstances. “Usually women meet in advance and take a formal vow with one another to succeed in their struggle or die trying.”

The comic strip, which has already been published in World War 3 and displayed at conferences in England, Kenya, Tennessee and Cuba, depicts the 10-day occupation of Africa’s largest oil export terminal and tank field in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta.

“The women were taking a stand against the environmental pollution and economic devastation caused by this oil company and demanding that the corporation leave the country,” Turner said.

Because the oil company staff knew they could not survive in society with such a curse, there was a 40-per-cent shutdown of oil production in Nigeria, she said. Turner estimates the government and oil companies lost $11 million US and $2.5 million US a day, respectively. The company quickly conceded most of the women’s demands, but has failed so far to make good on its promises, she said.

SUBMISSION OF THE WATERLOO CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

To The Standing Committee on Finance & Economic Affairs Pre-Budget Consultation

WEDNESDAY, Dianne Moser, Chair of the Board Louise Ervin, Past Chair of the Board and Past President, Ontario Catholic School trustees’ Association Roger D. Lawler, Director of Education Helen Mitchell, Chief Financial Officer

BACKGROUND The Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) is celebrating, in 2006, 170 years of Catholic education in Waterloo Region. The school system meets the education needs of 30,000 Elementary, Secondary and Adult students across Waterloo Region (Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, AND THE TOWNSHIPS OF Wilmot, Wellesley, Woolwich and North Dumfries), serving approximately 30% of the Elementary and Secondary school student population. The school system employees 2,500 full-time and 500 part-time staff including educators, administrators and support staff and operates with an annual budget of $200M. The purpose of Waterloo Region’s Catholic Schools is to offer a quality, comprehensive, Faith-based, education – Elementary, grades JK-8, Secondary, grades 9-12, as well as Adult and Alternative Education. We stimulate and support the growth and development of individual learners and prepare young adults for various career paths – school-to-work, college and university, skilled trades. Influenced by our first Director of Education, John Sweeney (former Minister of Community and Social Services in the David Peterson Government), the WCDSB sees the school as the hub of the community and has an impressive tradition of community partnership that includes education, public, not-for-profit and business sectors. • Education partnerships include: the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University; active articulation agreement with St. Jerome’s University and Conestoga College Institute of Advanced Learning, OISE – University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario, Catholic Curriculum Cooperative of Ontario (CCC); collaboration with the Waterloo Region District School Board is the norm.

• Public sector partnerships include: the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, the surrounding townships, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Waterloo Region Police Services and Family & Children Services. • Our Board Office facility is a renovated secondary school located in downtown Kitchener that includes a collaborative venture with the City of Kitchener and the Diocese of Hamilton and includes the provision of a Downtown Community Centre with space and programs for nine downtown community associations and a vibrant seniors program. • Two Public Library Branches (one in Kitchener and one in Cambridge) are located in our secondary schools. These partnerships provide a wider variety of resources for both the school community and the broader community, allowing close collaborating and effective use of scarce public resources. • We have extensive community use of schools through partnerships that pre-date the government’s recent community use of school program. At the same time, because of the government’s community use of schools initiative, community use of schools is certainly enhanced. • The WCDSB has a connection to virtually all not-for-profit organizations in the Region that support children, families and education and is aligned with many related provincial and national networks. For example, in partnership with not-for-profit day care providers such as the “Y” or OWL Child Care Services, half of our schools have either day care facilities or the provision of before and after school care. • Strategic business sector partnerships include: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Reid Heritage Homes, Communitech, all Regional chambers of commerce, the Business & Education Partnership of Waterloo Region, Automation Tooling Systems (ATS).

• Implementation of the Waterloo Region Education & Public Network that connects all Waterloo Region public institutions through a broadband, fibre optic, community-based, network. We also have a proud history of students engaging in community, provincial, national and international acts of social justice – whether it is raising funds for relief and missionary efforts in the third world or addressing the needs of members of our local community through food drives, clothing drives or raising funds. Over the past seven years our students and staff have raised an impressive $1.9 million for charitable and missionary works. We are also committed to implementation of the government’s education agenda. We believe the school system and community has a responsibility to reach every student to ensure that students graduate as caring, contributing members of society with the academic and social skills to transform the world. To accomplish our work, we depend upon our government as a true partner. True partnership means providing both the human and non-human resources to enable school boards to accomplish both government and local priorities. To this end we appreciate the investments government has made in the area of: • textbooks and classroom resources; • professional development for both teaching and non-teaching staff; • reduction of the average class size; • speciality teachers; and, • staff to address learning to 18. These investments are appreciated and will go far to address our common goal of improving student learning and ensuring that students graduate as contributing members of society.

TEACHER SALARIES & BENEFITS We, however, are beginning to show the signs of trouble – trouble that is a direct result of the failure of governments – past and present – to fix the inherent problems associated with the funding model introduced in 1998. We know that we are not alone. We are aware that, late last year, as many as five Catholic school boards, having consumed their reserve funds, filed deficit budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. We also understand that at least that many public school boards are in the same position. This past year, we, like many, many school boards – Public and Catholic – used the last of our reserves to fund the provincial teacher salary framework that was negotiated between the Minister and teacher federations. The result was to bring all teachers at A4 Maximum to $76,000 and then to add 2%, 2%, 2.5% and 3% to ensure labour peace and stability to the end of the 2007-2008 school year. While we do indeed have labour peace under these agreements, the price of the agreements is financial instability. It may be easy for the casual observer to point to school boards and say “you have more money than ever before to address collective agreements”. This is a simplistic argument that ignores a salient fact: Much (if not most) of the new investment in education has either been outside of the funding model or in areas outside the key salary benchmarks. This is critical and important when you appreciate that over 80% of a school board’s expenditures go to salary and benefits. As will be pointed out below in more detail, the previous and current government have not recognized the current salary benchmarks that were enshrined in 1998 are woefully outdated and simply do not recognize the fiscal realities of the year 2006 (almost a decade later). By way of illustration, how much gasoline would one dollar buy in 1998 vs. today? And our gas tank is growing, not shrinking.

The result for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board is a shortfall of some $3.5 million even before we begin our budget cycle for 2006-2007. In other words, if nothing is done, we will have to cut some $3.5 million from other budget areas in order to balance the 2006-07 budget. Why? Precisely because the salary benchmarks and the provincially negotiated salary framework are not tuned to reality. At the same time, the government continues to invest new dollars in new areas without addressing the inherent flaw in the funding model – creating a false impression that Boards have all sorts of money to pay salaries and benefits. While the new funding is welcomed and appreciated, each new announcement decreases our flexibility to address our most pressing fiscal need. As outlined in the financial brief of our Trustee Association (The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association) with reference to Teacher Salary Benchmarks: “By far the biggest single contributor to financing difficulties that school boards are currently experiencing is the gap that exists between the total compensation (salary & benefits) paid to teachers and the funding received for such from the Province. Because employee compensation represents some 80% of school boards’ operating budgets, and teachers are by far the largest employee category, any shortfall that exists in this area must be made up from other operating budget lines. Many such lines are “protected” or themselves under-funded, making the task of finding available funds for employee compensation extremely difficult. Robbing “Peter to pay Paul,” has now become common. It results in reductions in areas such as school supplies and texts, academic and administrative computers and school operations, in order to pay teachers. The ripple effect of funding the salary gap causes serious consequences across the entire spectrum of school board budgets.”

“Provincial funding for classroom teachers is provided by a combination of funds primarily from two sources. The Foundation Allocation assumes an average teacher salary in 2005-06 to be $56,264. The Teacher Qualification & Experience Allocation provides an adjustment to this figure (higher or lower) based on certain factors that vary according to experience (ten years) and qualification (five categories). When combined together, these two grants form a Provincial Salary Grid that funds classroom teachers’ salaries. Unfortunately, this grid is out of step with the actual salaries that boards pay to teachers and has been since the inception of the funding model in 1998. This gap has grown over the years to the point that many school boards can no longer find sources within their operating budget to fund it. OCSTA’s recent survey of our member boards shows a gap ranging from a high of $6,362 to a low of $2,289 per teacher, with the unweighted average being some $4,375. The cumulative shortfall for these boards in 2005-06 amounts to some $15.7 million or approximately 3.550% of their Operating Budget. OCSTA and Catholic school boards appreciate the government’s efforts in 2004-05 and 2005-06 to provide a new cost adjustment to capture the “real increase” in teacher salaries in those years. Despite this increase, however, the cumulative gap has not been addressed.” We have appended a chart to this presentation that shows the reality for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. We experience a short-fall per teacher of $5,178 between what the province provides as the average salary and what we actually pay out. This is a cost of $ 6,897,247 that we must take from other budget areas such as school maintenance, textbooks and supplies in order to make up for what the Province of Ontario does not fund. As we stated to our local MPP, Dr. John Milloy, at a pre-Christmas meeting, the salary gap and the failure of government to address it is a freight train barrelling down the track. As school boards move to the second, third and fourth years of the provincially negotiated framework with teachers, it will become harder and harder to sustain the collective agreement

commitments, putting labour peace itself in jeopardy. To be clear, the government knows the teacher collective agreement costs for the next four years, because every school board has collective agreements in place. The open, transparent thing to do is to fund the actual costs before investing new dollars in other areas. The cost of not addressing the issue is the continual bleeding of funds from other already strapped areas of Board budgets. Furthermore, now that virtually every school board has no reserves to go to, school boards will have no choice but to make significant cuts to address the government’s under-funding of teacher salaries. SPECIAL EDUCATION Special Education continues to be an area where the needs of students far outstrip available resources. We understand and appreciate the Ministry’s desire to review the way Special Education is funded. In point of fact there is a growing gap between costs and funding because the model has been essentially frozen pending the outcome of the review. At the same time, uncertainty in funding for our most vulnerable students causes unnecessary angst for both students and parents. We need to ensure that current funding levels are adjusted upward to reflect increasing costs while the model is being reviewed. STUDENT TRANSPORTATION A new and vastly improved Student Transportation model has been promised (and re-promised) to school boards since 1997-1998. Like the teacher salary funding model, the current transportation model stands on an outdated and woefully inadequate benchmark based, as it is, on 1997 dollars. For example, when the model was introduced in 1997/98, some boards such as the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and the Waterloo Region District School Board, had already gone through significant restructuring and had engaged in a transportation co-operative. Nonetheless, these savings were not recognized and the model in fact penalized those boards that had engaged in co-operatives and had realized savings. We continue to pay the price for finding efficiencies.

To be blunt, the several attempts to create a fair and equitable transportation model have not been successful since 1997. Our request is simple: the actual cost of transporting students to school needs to be reflected in any model; a model that should be based on the principles of equity, adequacy, autonomy/flexibility and accountability. Until such time as a new transportation model is released, school boards require interim funding to close the gap between transportation expenditures and provincial grants – again to stop the bleeding of funds from other budget areas that can no longer sustain the cuts needed to fund areas currently underfunded by the government. CAPITAL School boards still await the release of the criteria for school closures and other capital related processes. At the same time we need to address high growth areas within our district. Our board believes the previous model worked very well in that we were able to develop a twenty-five year plan for accommodations. We also were able to invest some $85 million in Waterloo Region in new school construction during the past seven years. We await fulfillment of the promise of new guidelines. We also understand that many of the key personnel in the Capital department of the Ministry are new and that it will be quite some time before these guidelines are released. We have to say quite frankly that the current lack of direction in the area of capital is a prime source of frustration. We need the capital processes and guidelines in place so we can ensure systematic improvement of student learning. How we provide safe and nurturing learning environments does have a critical impact on student learning.

RECOMMENDATIONS We are all aware that the learning agenda of the government is a critical piece in the economic and social future of Ontario. The Waterloo Catholic District School Board supports the agenda and will continue to work tirelessly as a full partner with government to achieve this agenda. We very much appreciate the openness and cooperation of MPP Milloy in this regard and we commend his enthusiastic support of public education. We look forward to continuing our relationship as we work to solve these very serious funding gaps. To that end, our requests of our provincial partner are: 1. Development and quick release of an open, transparent funding model wherein the actual costs of teacher salaries and benefits are identified and fully funded through annually updating the teacher salary benchmarks to reflect the actual costs of teacher salaries and benefits as they increase year over year; 2. An upward adjustment of Special Education funding to reflect increasing costs and thereby address student needs while the model is being reviewed. 3. Provision of additional funding to school boards in the area of Student Transportation to bridge the gap between current cost and grants based on a decade-old benchmark. 4. Release, as soon as possible, of the new funding guidelines for Capital Projects. Thank you for the opportunity to present this brief. Dianne Moser, Chair of the Board Louise Ervin, Past Chair of the Board and Past President, Ontario Catholic School trustees’ Association Roger D. Lawler, Director of Education Helen Mitchell, Chief Financial Officer.

WATERLOO, ON - The Waterloo Educational Support Staff (ESS) bargaining unit, who are members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF), have reached a tentative settlement with their employer. The bargaining unit represents approximately 600 members who work in the Waterloo Region District School Board. Details of the agreement are confidential until it is ratified.

"The bargaining team has recommended this tentative agreement to our members," stated Brenda Wiles, president of the OSSTF District 24 ESS bargaining unit. "This settlement highlights the importance of the educational support staff work in the schools and provides for the needs of all our members."

Desiree Francis, OSSTF Executive Officer and Chair of the District 24 ESS bargaining team commented, "The local bargaining team did a tremendous job during this round of negotiations and OSSTF feels that all our members have benefitted from this teams' efforts."

 This event, being held at the Delta Hotel in Kitchener, will assist students from across Ontario to advance to the Canadian Skills Competition taking place in Halifax in May 2006.  Starting at 6:00 p.m., guests are invited to browse the silent auction items, enjoy a terrific dinner and hear a speech from The Honourable Perrin Beatty is President and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. A posthumous award will be presented to the family of the late Klaus Woerner, founder of ATS (Automation Tooling Systems) for his commitment to excellence in the skilled trades.

 This cost for this event is $125 per person or $950 for a table.

 For ticket information or to make a donation to the bursary please call Carolyn at 749-9899 ext. 231 or email carolynh@skillscanada.com

Job Fair to be Held Wednesday

U of G, along with the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College, is sponsoring a Job Fair Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at RIM Park in Waterloo.

The annual event is the largest post-secondary job fair of its kind in Canada. The collaborative effort is expected to attract more than 4,000 students, graduates and alumni and more than 180 employers from across Ontario as well as Québec, British Columbia, Alberta and the United States.

Sponsored by Partnerships for Employment, which represents the area’s four post-secondary institutions, the fair features employers from virtually ever sector, including agribusiness, financial services, manufacturing, police services, government and information technology. Employers are looking to hire students from all disciplines for summer, permanent, contract, co-op and/or part-time opportunities.

The four post-secondary institutions were the first in Canada to jointly offer an annual job fair, which started in 1994. Since then, other educational institutions have introduced similar events.

The GEI Private Meeting to highlight progress, discuss lessons learned and share visions and plans for the future takes place today, Saturday 28 January, during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2006 in Davos. Senior representatives from the business community, governments, development agencies and civil society are meeting to develop and advocate the GEI value proposition. Interactive sessions aimed at sharing methodologies and best practices developed to date and to further strengthen the GEI model moving forward provide new insights into the power of collaborative public-private partnership (PPP).

"Launched initially in Jordan and having spurred new initiatives in the Palestinian Territories and the Indian State of Rajasthan, the Global Education Initiative is recognized as one of the largest and most successful working models in this field. I am confident that this model will continue to set new paradigms for the development of education in the years to come," said Professor Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Education for the next generation of the world’s growing young population is an urgent priority not only for governments around the world, but for all of society. For the private sector in particular, an effective education system is critical for economic growth and development in building a skilled labour force, increasing the purchasing power of citizens and improving productivity. Education goals such as equity, access and the reduction of gender disparity, coupled with real world issues such as poverty and hunger, pose a complex development challenge that demands bold new paradigms such as collaborative PPPs.

The vision for the GEI was conceived during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2003, where business leaders of the Forum’s Information Technology and Telecommunications Community launched an initiative that would create new, sustainable models for education reform in the developing world through public-private partnership. Based on its vision and commitment to education advancement, the Government of Jordan was selected to launch this effort in partnership with the World Economic Forum. The resulting Jordan Education Initiative has demonstrated the power and potential of collaborative PPPs to catalyse education reform, with over 45 organizations (including 17 global corporations) and US$ 25 million direct investment in the initiative thus far.

During 2005, similar initiatives were launched in the Palestinian Territories as well as in the Indian State of Rajasthan and encouraging discussions are under way to establish an Egyptian Education Initiative. Three years on, the GEI directly impacts 173,500 students and 7,500 teachers in 251 schools in Jordan and the Palestinian Territories alone.

We are pleased to recognize Cisco Systems and CA as Initiative Partners.

"It is truly an honour to be part of such a groundbreaking educational model where private, public and non-profit organizations come together to drive the marriage of education and technology for the greater good. My hope is that the Jordan Education Initiative becomes the model for increasing the educational opportunities and standard of living on a global basis," commented John Chambers, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems, USA.

WATERLOO - The Waterloo Professional Support Services Personnel (PSSP) bargaining unit, who are members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF), reached a tentative settlement with their employer. The PSSP bargaining unit represents approximately 53 members who work for the Waterloo Region District School Board in the capacity of Communicative Disorders Assistants (CDAs), Psychological Services Consultants, Social Workers and Speech-Language Pathologists. Details of the agreement are confidential until it is ratified.
"The bargaining team recommended this tentative settlement to our members," commented Cheryl Boyes, President of the OSSTF District 24 PSSP bargaining unit. "We're pleased that we were able to work with the board to obtain an agreement that responds to some of the issues that members told us were important to them."
Desiree Francis, OSSTF Executive Officer and Chair of the District 24 PSSP bargaining team stated, "The bargaining team should be congratulated for all their work. This settlement emphasizes the important work that these members perform in the schools each and every day."

WATERLOO - The Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research (WIHIR) at the University of Waterloo and Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) are pleased to announce that BLG has joined WIHIR as a corporate sponsor. The partnership will make productive collaborations possible and better position WIHIR to enter new domains and take on innovative types of research programs.

"The relationship between BLG and WIHIR is just one aspect of the University of Waterloo's collaboration with BLG," said David Johnston, UW's President. "We see significant opportunities arising from bringing together the talents of both our organizations and jointly undertaking new ventures in research and education."

The WIHIR and BLG partnership is wide ranging in scope. BLG and WIHIR will look for research opportunities where the law and its application play a significant role. Privacy, for example, has a considerable influence on information systems that cannot be addressed without understanding privacy law.

"Gradually, the realization is sinking in that the 'human aspects' of systems are the pre-eminent issues that determine system success," said UW Prof. Dominic Covvey, the Founding Director of WIHIR. "If you do not address matters like privacy, impacts on jobs, best practices of procuring systems, IP (intellectual property) and the potential negative effects of systems on patient safety, no amount of technology will deliver the outcomes we want. Recent work shows that systems can reduce patient safety and the quality of records. We need to look at systems in relation to the legal issues they create."

BLG has a reputation for excellence in areas specifically related to Health Informatics, including privacy, systems procurement, intellectual property protection and the commercialization of inventions. Health Informatics is the discipline that investigates how information, information management, and information and communications technologies can deliver value in the area of health.

"Health Informatics is a critical area for the future of Canadian health care but the legal issues and consequences related to its research and implementation are significant. Addressing these issues requires understanding of the Health Informatics field along with extensive legal knowledge," said Mark Fecenko, National Coordinator of BLG's Information Technology industry group. "I am pleased BLG's expertise in this area puts us in a position to partner with a cutting edge organization like WIHIR."

BLG is also providing support and speaking at WIHIR's "Bootcamp" program, an innovative educational initiative designed to address the Health Informatics human resources crisis. Canada graduates fewer than 100 "health informaticians" each year, but thousands are needed. The Bootcamp, next offered this spring in Toronto, aims to introduce the nature, key concepts and applications of the discipline to physicians, nurses, representatives of e-health agencies, and IT professionals in health organizations and industry.

"The Bootcamp is an intense educational experience intended to jump-start a life-long learning process in the area of Health Informatics," explained Shirley Fenton, the Managing Director of WIHIR.

In 2003, BLG opened a Waterloo Region office to provide a full range of business, IP and litigation services to local businesses.

"BLG's partnership with WIHIR is another way for BLG to demonstrate its commitment to Waterloo Region," said Craig Armstrong, a partner at BLG's Waterloo Region office. "I believe this partnership will reap considerable rewards for the community."

The founder of the Canadian chapter of Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), an international organization dedicated to providing medical care to people living in vulnerable areas of the world, will speak Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in Peter Clark Hall.

Richard Heinzl, who founded MSF Canada in 1990, will present “Lessons From Abroad: The Opportunities of a Borderless World,” the story of how he and his colleagues faced an overwhelming humanitarian crisis during the Iraq War and relied on the lessons they’d learned from their international aid work. At the peak of the crisis, Heinzl was treating up to 300 patients a day. He will also discuss the importance of using a non-conventional approach to problem solving, coping with change and transformation, and the global impact of technological change.

“The goal is to inspire students to reflect on their own abilities and possibilities for change and transformation,” said organizer Suzanne Welstead, a therapist in U of G’s Counselling Services office. “We want to reach people on campus that might not otherwise seek any connection to Counselling Services, and give students an opportunity to consider what their passion might be so they can feel encouraged to live out their own vision.”

Over the past 15 years, hundreds of medical and non-medical Canadian volunteers have travelled abroad with MSF Canada, responding to public health emergencies such as epidemics, food security issues and environmental crises in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan.

MSF Canada, one of 18 international branches of the organization, now boasts five offices across the country. In 1998, MSF Canada’s president was named president of MSF and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the program.

Heinzl has received numerous awards and citations for his efforts, including being named to Report on Business magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 list. He is vice-president of Vivid Health Solutions, which creates motion picture and new-media solutions for the health sciences, and former CEO of CardioView Inc., a Toronto-based information-technology company specializing in cardiology.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased in advance at the Student Support Network in Raithby House, Monday to Friday from noon to midnight, or at the front desk at Counselling Services, located on level 3 of the University Centre. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door.

WATERLOO, ON – UW and WLU students are facing off to determine once and for all: who’s really got what it takes? Waterloo vs. Laurier Apprentice is a scholarship program conceived, developed and run entirely by students from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. The winning student will receive a $2,500 scholarship to his or her university.

Between January and March 2006, a team of talented students from each school will face-off in eight weekly business challenges, in order to determine which student will receive a $2,500 scholarship to his or her university. This week’s challenge will be in the Student Life Center on UW campus, on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006, between 12:30 and 2:30. The students will be creating an elevator pitch, and selling the idea to our judges. More information can be found at www.waterloovslaurierapprentice.com .

Waterloo vs. Laurier Apprentice (presented by Waterloo Off-Campus Housing) was developed to address certain needs within the student population of Waterloo. It is intended to provide a substantial scholarship to a promising student, and encourage students to develop leadership skills and other valuable soft skills. This scholarship program relies entirely on the support of local businesses, particularly that of Waterloo Off-Campus Housing.

Spearheaded by Natai Shelsen (a third year Speech Communication major at UW), Jeffrey Liu (a third year Software Engineering student at UW) and Gabriel Tomescu (a third year Business Administration student at WLU), Waterloo vs. Laurier Apprentice is designed to leave a lasting impression on the student and general populations of Waterloo. It will challenge talented students to excel, and make their community proud.

Waterloo vs. Laurier Apprentice is a scholarship program designed by students, for students. It is seeking to positively influence the communities in which it is taking place.

The U of G Alumni Association seeks nominations for five awards honouring the achievements of alumni and the contributions of volunteers.

The Alumnus of Honour Award celebrates alumni who have brought great honour to their alma mater through professional, community and/or personal endeavours. The Alumni Medal of Achievement recognizes a graduate of the last 15 years who has achieved excellence through contributions to the country, community, profession or the world of arts and letters. The Alumni Volunteer Award, Employee Volunteer Award and Student Volunteer Award recognize those who have volunteered their time by working with students, faculty or alumni.

Nominations must be submitted to the UGAA Honours and Awards Committee c/o Alumni House by Jan. 27. If you have questions, contact Jason Moreton at Ext. 53718 or jmoreton@uoguelph.ca

The University of Guelph has been awarded its first-ever chair from the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program. The prestigious honour will bring esteemed visiting scholars to Guelph to collaborate with faculty and conduct research.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the entire U of G community,” Prof. Maureen Mancuso, vice-president (academic), said of the Fulbright-University of Guelph Visiting Chair in Environmental Science and Public Policy. “It will allow our faculty to forge new links with their American counterparts. It also speaks to Guelph’s leadership in public policy and environmental science because establishing a Fulbright chair is a very complicated process.”

U of G will welcome a senior U.S. scholar selected by the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program annually during the chair’s five-year duration. Individuals will be selected based on their academic or professional qualifications and willingness to share ideas and experiences, and the chosen candidate will work and study in Guelph for a semester.

The first U of G-Fulbright chair will be held by David Hamilton, a professor of public policy at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He arrived in Guelph this week. “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Hamilton to U of G,” Mancuso said. “He is a recognized scholar for his work on contemporary public policy and federalism. He’ll bring a breadth of knowledge and a fresh perspective to the University because his work crosses disciplinary boundaries. His presence will be particularly beneficial to students and faculty in environmental sciences and political science.”

Hamilton will be researching the differences between Canada and the United States in addressing regional issues in metropolitan areas. “I will be looking at environmental policy very broadly --- in this case in government environments.”

The two countries have embarked on markedly different approaches in accommodating local government systems to meet the challenges of the new century, he said. The United States has focussed on governance within existing local structures, whereas Canada favours moving from a tiered regional system to an amalgamated “megacity” approach, as in Toronto, Ottawa and Cambridge.

Hamilton plans to gather data throughout Ontario with a focus on Toronto. “I’ll be looking at the changes that have taken place and how they have impacted the ability of the local governments to provide services.” He’s also interested in the politics and practical implications of “megacities.” “I’ll be talking to people to find out whether they eventually embraced the changes or if there was resistance and they were difficult to implement.” He intends to publish this comparative analysis as a book-length manuscript.

Long regarded as the world’s premier academic exchange program, the Fulbright program attracts exceptional scholars from more than 150 countries worldwide. Established in 1946, it is named for former U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs Canada and the United States Department of State.

More than 250,000 people chosen for academic merit and leadership potential have studied, researched and taught in partner countries on Fulbright exchanges. Alumni include Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, ambassadors and artists, prime ministers and heads of states, scientists and professors, and CEOs. The 15-year-old Canada-U.S. program is among the fastest growing of the bilateral exchanges, with some 800 alumni.

WATERLOO - The University of Waterloo was successful in its bid to host the 2008 Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC), which attracts top engineering students from across the country.

A UW committee won the bid at the recent annual congress of the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES). The CEC is an annual event that includes competitions in both technical and socially based areas.

"The Canadian Engineering Competition is the culmination of engineering competitions across Canada," said Brandon Malleck, a leader of the bid committee, "This prestigious event will be an outstanding opportunity to showcase the University of Waterloo and Waterloo Region."

Through six individual competitions, students are challenged to demonstrate their skills in communication, leadership, teamwork and design. All competitors must prepare a written report detailing their solution and make a presentation or demonstration before a panel of technical experts from industry and academia.

Stephanie Robinson, another UW representative, said: "Various organizations within the university were integral in capturing the competition and will partner in hosting this national event." Those organizations include the Faculty of Engineering, Engineers Without Borders UW Chapter, Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology and the Engineering Society.

CEC offers an opportunity for many local and national corporations to sponsor the competition. Sponsorship opportunities will be published after the University of Saskatchewan hosts the Canadian Engineering Competition in March 2007.

Junior Achievement programs are simple and easy for volunteers to deliver. All materials are provided, as is training to ensure volunteers can step in and deliver value from day one. “Not only do our volunteers perform a great service for the students and for our community; they get a lot of enjoyment out of being involved.” says Van Kalsbeek. “Beyond the pride of giving back to the future of our children, they also take a lot of satisfaction from watching the kids learn and grow.”

Junior Achievement is looking for volunteers for the following programs:

Business Basics….the series

The new Business Basics series is geared to students in elementary school. These programs help students from grade 3 to 6 understand the organization and operation of businesses in their community.

Series includes:

o Grade 3: Our Community - Needs, Jobs, Tools

o Grade 4: Our Country – Technology and Innovation

o Grade 5: Our Business World

o Grade 6: The Stuff Stand

Volunteer Commitment:4 to 5 one hour sessions, plus 1 ½ hour training

Dollars with Sense

This interactive program encourages grade 7 students to develop the financial literacy necessary to make informed decisions about their financial futures. Students learn about budgeting, money management and investments.

Volunteer Commitment:6 one hour sessions, plus 1 ½ hour training

The Economics of Staying in School

Fondly called “ESIS”, this interactive program encourages grade 7 & 8 students to weigh the advantages of staying in school until they have acquired the knowledge, attitudes and skills to evaluate the longer-term advantages of a successful career.

Volunteer Commitment:1 full day (8am – 3pm), plus 1 ½ hour training

Banks in Action

This program gives grade 9 & 10 students an opportunity to better understand the world of banking. Through fast-paced activities and discussion, students learn the fundamentals of borrowing and lending, and the impact of interest rates on banks and their customers.

Volunteer Commitment:3 one hour or 75 minute sessions, plus 1 ½ hour training

Student Venture

Offered to students in grades 11 & 12, this program provides the opportunity for participants to learn business concepts and experience all phases of business operations. Participants organize a corporation, elect officers, sell shares, produce, market and sell a product / service, maintain records and liquidate the business.

Volunteer Commitment:12 one hour or 75 minute sessions, plus 1 ½ hour training

Junior Achievement of Waterloo Region Inc. has been offering community-based programs in the area since 1970. As a non-profit organization, JA is dedicated to providing business education to youth. Six programs encourage young people, from grades 3 to 12, to achieve their highest potential and success as citizens of our community and participants in the global economy. The Junior Achievement experience helps young people understand the nuances of business, finance, banking, entrepreneurship, leadership and provides workforce readiness skills.

For more information, please contact:

Tracy Van Kalsbeek, Program Manager
Junior Achievement of the Waterloo Region
(519) 576-6610
tracy@jawaterlooregion.org

Prof. Chris McKenna, associate vice-president (research), has been appointed interim dean of the new College of Management and Economics (CME). His three-year term begins immediately, and the new college will officially open May 2006.

“The new college is an amalgamation of existing programs, but it’s also a new beginning as we look to enhance and expand our courses and offerings. I look forward to playing a part in the process,” said McKenna, former chair of the Department of Economics.

McKenna’s appointment was announced today by Prof. Maureen Mancuso, provost and vice-president (academic). She is overseeing the University’s integrated planning process, which included the organizational initiative of creating the new college.

“I am pleased that Chris has agreed to take on this new challenge,” Mancuso said. “He will provide both a fresh perspective and a balance of continuity during the transition period and establishment of CME.”

McKenna was seconded in November 2004 to lead exploratory discussions with deans, chairs and others to help determine if a new college will give the University a better framework to advance teaching and research programs in management and business-related programs.

The new college was approved by the University Senate Dec. 19 following lengthy discussions and detailed reviews. “The process was thorough and as consultative as possible,” Mancuso said, adding the University followed procedures established when it created CSAHS in May 1998, which also amalgamated existing programs.

CME will include the Department of Economics, the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies, as well as some continued contributions from the departments of Agricultural Economics and Business, Psychology and Political Science.

WATERLOO – A self-described ‘serial entrepreneur’ is returning to Laurier as the first entrepreneur-in-residence at the Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship. Richard Wagner is volunteering in this position within the school of business and economics at Wilfrid Laurier University.

The entrepreneur-in-residence program is designed to provide students with access to the expertise required to successfully launch a new venture. Each term the entrepreneur will spend one day a week meeting with students in a confidential setting, discussing their aspirations and ideas for a new business.

“The ultimate goal is to enhance the students’ knowledge of entrepreneurship and increase their chances of launching a successful business,” said Steve Farlow, executive director of the Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship. “Laurier students now have a unique and powerful opportunity to learn directly from an experienced successful entrepreneur.”

The entrepreneur-in-residence will chair the Schlegel Student Business Operators’ Association, which will promote and encourage the entrepreneurial development of Laurier students who operate a business. The SSBOA will offer peer-to-peer networking, regular meetings and guest speakers.

As the centre’s first entrepreneur-in-residence, Wagner brings a wealth of knowledge and experience owning and building successful businesses to the students and programs of Laurier’s school of business and economics. He held senior positions with Deloitte and the Toronto Dominion Bank, before purchasing, turning around and selling an insolvent manufacturing company, Ultra Metal.

Wagner later joined Enviro-Care Kruncher Corporation as president and CEO, patenting and commercializing a waste-processing technology that led to installations around the world, including Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom. He more recently started a new venture, Giant Resource Recovery Aerosols Inc., which included a partnership with a multi-national cement company and the building of a new plant in the U.S. In 2005, after building this business to revenues in excess of $4 million, he sold the company.

Wagner holds a bachelor of business administration degree from Laurier and an MBA from McMaster University. He is a certified management accountant.

Parents are invited to contact their local Catholic school directly for registration dates and times.

A special “Sign Up For School” section has been established on the Board’s web site – offering one-stop-shopping assistance for local Catholics wishing their children to attend a Catholic school, including contact information for all schools. The web address is: www.wcdsb.edu.on.ca

When registering their children, parents must be prepared to provide proof of the child’s date of birth and either the child’s Catholic baptismal certificate or the Catholic baptismal certificate of at least one parent or guardian.

“Our school system is a community of communities in the truest sense, where each of our schools is by itself a vibrant, exciting, faith-filled part of a larger whole. What do our school communities offer? First rate staff, academic excellence, innovative programs and a safe, respectful, socially responsible learning environment, all based on the solid foundation of the Catholic faith. It’s a recipe for success and a sign of a 21st century school system on the move. We’d love to have you join us in our 170th Anniversary year,” said Education Director Roger Lawler in a message to parents.

“Be sure to visit your local Catholic school. Come and see how we really are ‘learning, growing and transforming the world together,’” he said. Registration runs until February 28, 2006.

In August, we learned that Google acquired Android Inc., another developer of mobile phone software.

Waterloo, Ontario is also home to Research In Motion (BlackBerry), OpenText, and the University of Waterloo which is well-known for the high quality engineers it turns out. According to the article, Google has been recruiting at UoW for years.

Google, which has recruited University of Waterloo graduates to work in Silicon Valley for several years, recently placed a job posting on its Web site looking for a mobile wireless application developer based in the southern Ontario city. "Google is hiring engineers to bring our wireless products to the next level," the company says in the posting

Gary Will, the editor of Waterloo Tech Digest, has comments and background about the acquisitin on his blog.

Sun's Tim Bray has strong ties to the Waterloo area and the Univ of Waterloo. It's there he worked on the New Oxford English Dictionary and then founded Open Text (remember the Open Text web engine?) and Antarctica Systems. Of course, Bray is also one of the original developers/editors of XML.

A current student at the University of Waterloo and well-known for creating useful web search tools is Michael Fagan. Mike's the developer of FaganFinder, URLInfo, and the very useful Translation Wizard. I also see his introduction to RSS and syndication linked to fromn many sites and articles. He's also the developer of UWHub, a search tool for University of Waterloo info.

The review, in math and in other areas, has been continuing since the province's tough new curriculum erased a year of high school for those bound for university, and at the same time, forced struggling students to drop out.

But there is fear in some quarters that the calculus course will be watered down.

"We just don't feel that students would be adequately prepared for an engineering education as they are now," said Annette Bergeron, past chair of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and the group's representative on the Council of Ontario Deans of Engineering.

The Record reported thatUniversityofWaterloo President David Johnstonwarning Education Minister Gerard Kennedy of the Universities great concern, if calculus is dropped form Math courses. “We’re reducing the rigour in our educational system”, the report stated Johnson saying.

Education is viewed by many to be a cornerstone of building a strong and livable community.

The United Nations Children's Fund, for example, estimates that one in 10 school-age African girls either skips school during menstruation or drops out entirely because of lack of sanitation. The average schoolgirl's struggle for privacy is emblematic of the uphill battle for public education in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among girls.

With slightly more than 6 in 10 eligible children enrolled in primary school, the region's enrollment rates are the lowest in the world. Beyond that, enrollment among primary school-aged girls is 8 percent lower than among boys, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF. And of those girls who enroll, 9 percent more drop out before the end of sixth grade than boys. African girls in poor, rural areas like Balizenda, Ethiopia are even more likely to lose out. The World Bank estimated in 1999 that only one in four of them were enrolled in primary school.

The issue, advocates for children say, is not merely fairness. The World Bank contends that if women in Sub-Saharan Africa had equal access to education, land, credit and other assets like fertilizer, the region's gross national product could increase by almost one additional percentage point annually. Mark Blackden, one of the Bank's lead analysts, said Africa's progress was inextricably linked to the fate of girls. "There is a connection between growth in Africa and gender equality," he said. "It is of great importance but still ignored by so many."

Kitchener – St. Timothy Catholic Elementary School, 15 Bechtel Dr., Kitchener, celebrates its 25th Anniversary in 2006.

Anniversary festivities officially begin at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 21, 2006 with a spaghetti dinner in St. Aloysius Parish Hall. Tickets are available at St. Tim’s.

On Wednesday, May 3, 2006, the school will be honoured to host the Most Reverend Gerard Bergie, Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton.

Bishop Bergie will celebrate a special Mass at St. Aloysius church in the morning and spend time with students in their classrooms in the afternoon. The school will host a special Open House from 3:30 to 5 p.m. that day.

The anniversary celebrations will conclude with a closing barbeque in June.

TORONTO, ONTARIO-Leading Representatives of Business, Cities, and Research Institutions in the Broader Toronto Region Call on Federal Party Leaders to Invest in Innovation

Boston Consulting Group Report Reveals Gaps in Federal Investment

Each of the federal political parties has recognized in its platform that innovation is at the heart of any truly 21st century plan to boost Canadian competitiveness and economic growth. We strongly endorse this and also believe that regional economies are a critical component of any national innovation strategy.

More and more it is becoming clear that a country's overall prosperity is due in no small part to the strength of its regional R&D economies. Our competitors across the globe are racing ahead with dramatic innovation initiatives and we must follow suit to ensure Canada's productivity and prosperity in the new world order.

The broader Toronto region (embracing Hamilton, Guelph, the Waterloo region and the Greater Toronto Area) is an important economic engine for Canadian jobs and economic growth. Accounting for over 35 per cent of the R&D carried out in Canada, the region has both a dynamic research community producing innovative ideas and strong industry receptor clusters ready to pick these ideas up and run with them.

However, there are also significant challenges that require federal leadership. The recent report prepared by The Boston Consulting Group for TRRA outlines the need for federal innovation investment to catalyze research and commercialization efforts in this region. The fact that the National Research Council has established facilities everywhere in the country except this region is an oversight that must be addressed. Compelling proposals for federal innovation investment in this region have been advanced by the University of Toronto, a Town of Markham-York University consortium, and the University of Waterloo. All of them involve transformational research initiatives that will dramatically strengthen Canada's competitive advantage on the world stage.

A proposal for a National Centre for Biomedical Innovation (NCBI), has been developed to focus on developing biomedical discoveries into healthcare applications. Spearheaded by the University of Toronto in collaboration with MaRS and Battelle, a world-renowned non-profit research organization, the proposal is supported by leading research hospitals such as the Hospital for Sick Children, Mount Sinai, University Health Network, St. Michael's, and Sunnybrook and Women's. NCBI would work with a spectrum of partners to develop products and processes that will add value to biomedical discoveries while attracting new R&D investment and capital.

A proposal led by York University and the Town of Markham, in partnership with the University of Waterloo, IBM and sanofi pasteur, has been developed on behalf of a strong consortium of industry and community hospital participants. The National Institute for Convergent Technologies, co-locating researchers and industry developers, will serve as a unique catalyst for convergence in research and commercial applications between the IT/software and the biomedical technologies sectors.

A proposal also comes from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) and the University of Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC). A sustaining federal investment in these world-leading institutes will bring incalculable future benefits to Canada. Theorists at PI and experimental researchers at IQC are working to translate foundational ideas in physics and quantum computing into commercialized applications that will touch virtually every aspect of our lives.

These are high-impact initiatives. Each project will attract and retain world-class researchers, graduate highly qualified talent, attract international investment, and create new companies with high quality jobs. The support of these emerging world-class clusters will benefit all Canadians and defend our future prosperity.

This is a watershed moment for our country's role in the global innovation economy. Either we can grow our ability to develop, attract and retain the most outstanding researchers and the most innovative companies or we can watch as they go elsewhere.

We have come together as the Toronto Region Research Alliance because we believe we must respond to this challenge. We ask that during this election you clearly articulate how you plan to address the innovation challenges and opportunities facing Canada and the broader Toronto region. Canada's future depends on it.

Signed by the Board of Directors of the Toronto Region Research Alliance

TS - The Toronto Region Research Alliance, a high-powered group of business, academic and political leaders, says the broader Toronto region, encompassing the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, Guelph and Waterloo, has the potential to be a world leader in research.

The region is home to 53 of the world's most eminent researchers, who represent a larger proportion of the population than do their counterparts in many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan. Its eight universities and 10 colleges give the region the highest concentration of post-secondary institutions in Canada. At the same time, its more than 60 hospitals and 37 medical institutions make it the third-largest medical-hospital complex in all of North America.

But according to the alliance, the federal government is failing to help the region capitalize on its vast research potential.

In an open letter to the three national political party leaders, the alliance points out that although the region performs 35 per cent of all research and development in the country, it receives barely 21 per cent of the funding dispensed by the main federal research granting agencies.

Just as important, Ottawa has used the National Research Council of Canada to create catalysts across the nation for bringing researchers and industry partners together to transform new ideas into new products and speed the pace of bringing them to market. And yet, not one of the council's 22 institutes, 17 research centres and three major labs is in the Toronto region. That void, the alliance says, needs to be urgently addressed.

The alliance points to three projects, all involving transformational research initiatives with the potential to give Canada a real economic boost. All could hit the ground running with appropriate NRC support.

First, a National Centre for Biomedical Innovation, the brainchild of the University of Toronto, MaRS (the medical and related science complex in downtown Toronto) and a U.S.-based non-profit research organization, would focus on transforming biomedical discoveries into products and processes with health-care applications. It needs about $50 million annually in base funding to operate with any efficiency.

Second, a National Institute for Convergent Technologies would serve as an umbrella for combining software development with research in information and biomedical technologies in new commercial applications. This plan is also a joint effort of York University, the University of Waterloo, IBM, the town of Markham and Sanofi Pasteur, a vaccine maker.

Third, a joint venture of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the University of Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing would bring computer scientists, physicists, chemists and engineers together to put Ontario at the forefront of developments in computer technology.

Canada's high school dropout rate has declined significantly since the early 1990s, especially in the Atlantic provinces, according to a new report.

However, young women have made more progress than their male counterparts, and the dropout rate among students living in rural and small towns remains higher than in urban areas.

The report, published in the December issue of Education Matters, uses Labour Force Survey (LFS) data to calculate dropout rates for the school years 1990/91 to 2004/05. It compares rates for men and women and for metropolitan areas and rural areas, and also examines some of the negative labour market consequences of dropping out.

The high school dropout rate is defined as the proportion of young people aged 20 to 24 who are not attending school, and who have not graduated from high school.

During the 1990/91 school year, the first year for which dropout rates can be calculated using LFS data, one out of every six young people in this age group, or 16.7%, was neither attending school, nor had a high school diploma. However, by 2004/05, this rate had slipped to 9.8%.

In terms of absolute numbers, roughly 212,000 young people in a total population of 2.2 million in this age group were either not attending school or had not graduated from high school by the 2004/05 school year. However, this number was 37.2% lower than it was in 1990/91.

The evidence also suggests that potential employers are less likely to hire high school dropouts. The unemployment rate among dropouts aged 20 to 24 in 2004/05 was 19.4%, double that for all others in this age group.

The data indicate much progress has been made at a national level in reducing the high school dropout rate. The decline was most apparent in eastern Canada.

For example, on average, for the three year period 1990/91 to 1992/93, about one in five young people aged 20 to 24 were without a high school diploma and were not attending school in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Prince Edward Island. This was the highest rate in the country at the time.

In contrast, during the most recent three-year period, the dropout rate in both provinces was in the 8% to 10% range, ranking them among the lowest in Canada. Dropout rates also fell sharply in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, to 9.3% and 9.2% respectively.

In Quebec and the Prairie provinces, rates have averaged above 10% during the past three years. However, these too have declined from their levels in the early 1990s, when they hovered in the 16% to 17% range.

Nor have all groups made equal progress. Dropout rates generally remain higher in rural areas and in small towns than in urban areas, especially in Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta.

And clearly, young men continue to experience a higher likelihood of dropping out than their female counterparts. Among the 212,000 drop-outs in 2004/05, nearly two-thirds, or 135,000, were men.

The dropout rate among men aged 20 to 24 was 12.2% in 2004/05, compared with 7.2% for young women, but both rates have fallen since 1990/91

TORONTO - Public elementary substitute teachers, members of the Waterloo Region Occasional Teacher Local of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), ratified a tentative agreement yesterday evening.

"It's a good deal. Guaranteed, negotiated working conditions for occasional teachers create a supportive school environment that benefits student learning," said Emily Noble, ETFO President.

"Occasional Teachers are fully qualified professionals who are certified by the College of Teachers. This new agreement recognizes the experience and the qualifications that my members bring to the job every day. I hope that other school boards that have not yet been able to reach a deal with ETFO, will take note of the key elements in this contract," Noble said.

"I am pleased with the results of the vote by my membership yesterday evening. The team successfully addressed a number of issues in this agreement that were of longstanding concern. We achieved what we set out to do," said Kim Pearson, President of the ETFO Waterloo Region Occasional Teacher Local.

The Waterloo Region Occasional Teacher Local represents 640 public elementary occasional teachers. Their contracts ended August 31, 2004.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario represents 70,000 public elementary teachers and education workers across Ontario and is the largest teacher federation in Canada outside of Quebec.

The annual IAFE/SunGard FEOY Award, established in 1993, recognizes individual contributions to the advancement of financial engineering technology. Nominations are submitted by a nominating committee of approximately 100 people, consisting of all the IAFE governing boards. They are then reviewed by a selection committee of 25 members, including the IAFE board of directors and senior fellows. This year's selection committee was chaired by Prof. Darrell Duffie, an IAFE senior fellow and 2003 FEOY award recipient, and a faculty member at Stanford University.

Program: Architecture - Project and Facility Management

Christopher Marion of Waterloo is the winner of a $2,000 scholarship from Conestoga College for achieving the highest standing of any student entering the first year of the program. He is a graduate of St. David Catholic Secondary School and St. Louis Adult Learning Centre. In addition to his interest in design and construction, he also enjoys involvement in sports, woodworking, music and painting.

Jonathan Martin of Drayton is the winner of a $1,000 scholarship from Conestoga College for the second-highest standing of any student entering the program. He graduated from Norwell District Secondary School.

Ryan Samworth of Goderich achieved the third-highest academic standing and is winner of a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by Conestoga College. A multi-sport athlete and avid hockey player, he graduated from Goderich District Collegiate Institute.

Lee-Ann Smith of Sunderland and Kristijan Urban of Guelph are co-winners of a bridging scholarship. Each receives $1,000 for the highest academic standing by a Conestoga diploma graduate entering the third year of the program. Both graduated from the Architecture - Construction Engineering Technology program -- Kristijan in 2004, Lee-Ann in 2005. Kristijan's scholarship is sponsored by Melloul Blamey Construction Inc. Lee-Ann's is sponsored by the Alumni Association of Conestoga College. Before entering their diploma program at Conestoga, Lee-Ann graduated from Brock High School (Cannington) and Kristijan graduated from Centennial Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

Wojciech Podolan of London is the winner of a $1,000 bridging scholarship sponsored by Conestoga College, for entering the third year of study with the highest academic standing of any student who is a graduate of another college. He completed the Architectural Technology program at Sheridan College and is also a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School.

Program: Health Informatics Management

Shiva Monzavi of Kitchener is the winner of a $2,000 scholarship, sponsored by Manulife Financial, for having the highest marks of any student entering the program. A native of Iran, Shiva immigrated to Canada in 2004 and is a graduate of St. Louis Adult Learning Centre.

Sheetal Rajkumari achieved the second-highest average and is the winner of a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by Conestoga College. She is from Toronto and graduated from East York Collegiate Institute. A native of India, she immigrated to Canada with her family three years ago and hopes eventually to earn a master's degree.

Lindsay Willits of Wingham is a graduate of F.E. Madill Secondary School and the winner of a $1,000 scholarship for the third-best academic standing entering the program. The scholarship sponsor is Conestoga College. She also has been an active volunteer at Wingham and District Hospital, the Belmore Community Centre and the Howick Turnberry Fall Fair.

Program: Integrated Advanced Manufacturing Technologies

Joshua Brennan of New Hamburg achieved the top marks of any student entering the program and is the winner of a $2,000 scholarship sponsored by Conestoga College. He is a graduate of Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School.

Daniel Baillargeon of Cambridge graduated from Galt Collegiate Institute and Vocational School, and is winner of a $1,000 scholarship from COM DEV International for achieving the second-highest standing of any student entering the program. He has won several awards in industrial design, technical studies and manufacturing technology.

Willem Bijlsma of Alma is the winner of a $1,000 scholarship from Conestoga College for the third-highest academic standing entering the program. A native of the Netherlands, he is a graduate of Centre Wellington District High School and Wellington Heights Secondary School.

Kathleen Rodgers of Cambridge is the winner of a $1,000 bridging scholarship from the Alumni Association of Conestoga College, for having the highest marks of a Conestoga graduate entering the third year of the program. She graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Technology - Design and Analysis diploma program in 2004 and hopes eventually to establish her own design engineering company.

Program: Integrated Telecommunication and Computer Technologies

Aaron Thorpe of Kitchener is the winner of the Vice-President, Academic Scholarship (Technology), a $2,000 award sponsored by David Burns, Conestoga's academic vice-president, for achieving the highest marks of any student entering a technology degree program. He is also the winner of a $2,000 scholarship from Conestoga College for best academic achievement by a student entering the program. He is a graduate of Forest Heights Collegiate Institute and his experience as a volunteer working at a medical clinic in Africa has instilled in him a desire to return there as a professional engineer, aiding international development. His final-year academic average at Forest Heights was 92.40.

Kirubaharan Vallipuram of Waterloo is winner of a $1,000 scholarship, sponsored by COM DEV International, for the second-highest academic standing entering the program. He is a graduate of Georges Vanier High School in Toronto and hopes to eventually run his own business.

Jordan Wisniewski of Cambridge is the winner of a $1,000 scholarship from Conestoga College for achieving the third-highest standing of a student entering the program. He is a graduate of St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School.

Program: Nursing

Melissa Bacon of Waterloo is the winner of the Vice-President, Academic Scholarship (Health Sciences), a $2,000 award sponsored by David Burns, Conestoga's academic vice-president, for achieving the highest marks of any student entering a health sciences degree program. She is a graduate of Bluevale Collegiate Institute, and hopes to pursue a career in oncological or medical-surgical nursing, or as a nurse practitioner. Her final-year academic average at Bluevale was 92.67.

Elisabeth Caskenette of Cambridge is the winner of a $2,000 scholarship, sponsored by Manulife Financial, for achieving the top qualifying average of students entering the first year of study. A trained potter who has also worked on native reserves and as part of a relief mission in West Africa, she completed studies at St. Louis Adult Learning Centre.

Bloomberg -- McGill University boosters have a T- shirt waiting for students like Meredith Yasek, a 17-year-old Boston resident who wants to attend the Montreal school next year: ``Harvard -- America's McGill.''

``It's one of the premier institutions in North America, the one in Canada that Americans know about,'' said Yasek, who also is applying to Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University and Yale University. ``It's the Harvard of Canada.''

The Canadian school is luring students like Yasek with the reputation of its professors and a price tag that's 50 percent less than some American universities. The number of students from the U.S. doubled in the past five years, and Americans now account for about 7 percent of the school's 32,800 students.

McGill tied the University of Toronto as Canada's No. 1 doctoral university in Maclean's magazine's annual rankings this month, the first time it has done so in more than a decade. Canada's lone newsweekly has been rating universities for 15 years, taking into account criteria such as student grades, faculty and reputation.

Foreign students make up about 20 percent of enrollment this year, the biggest proportion for any Canadian university, McGill recruitment director Howard Tontini said in an interview.

``International is a big deal for us,'' Tontini said. ``It's a mission of the university to always be internationally recognized, and to be able to do that, you want professors and students from around the world.''

James McGill

Founded as the University of McGill College in 1821 with a bequest from Scottish-born Montreal fur trader James McGill, the school has grown into an academic institution that offers studies in 300 disciplines, with seven affiliated teaching hospitals and 14 libraries.

McGill led all Canadian universities, placing 24th, in a ranking published Oct. 28 by the London-based Times Higher Education Supplement. Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was first.

About 500 professors, or about 33 percent of McGill's teaching staff, were added in the past five years. Noted academics include Wendy Thomson, the director of the school of social work and a former adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Full-time faculty members each receive C$233,000 ($199,448) on average in grants a year, the highest in Canada, according to the school.

Tuition

Tuition is another attraction for foreign students. A year in Yale's engineering program, to which Yasek is applying, costs about $41,000 for tuition, room and board. McGill's international students pay half as much, or about C$24,000 including books, food, lodging, insurance and various fees.

``That was the first thing that made me want to look at Canada,'' Yasek said. ``For such a good education, it's amazing that tuition can be so much lower.''

Canada's 90 universities had 785,000 full-time students last year, according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. By comparison, about 17 million people were enrolled this year at more than 4,100 U.S. colleges and universities, according the American Council on Education in Washington. That means there are about twice as many university students in the U.S. than in Canada, relative to population.

Tuition at Canadian schools is traditionally lower than in the U.S. because the government subsidizes universities. McGill had a budget of about C$929 million in 2003-2004, almost a third of which came from the Quebec government. Harvard's annual budget was $2.8 billion in fiscal 2005.

Attraction

``Tuition is a really big attraction for a U.S. student,'' said Elysia Blake, an arts student who holds dual French and U.S. citizenship and is vice president of the McGill International Student Network. ``They know that tuition here will be substantially easier to cope with.''

And once everything's paid for, it's much easier to enjoy McGill's other appeals, such as its location in Montreal, a city known for events such as the Just For Laughs comedy show and the annual jazz festival.

``When I got here, people told me `don't worry about the cold,' and they were right,'' said Blake, a 20-year-old Florida native who grew up in Central America.

Playboy magazine this year listed McGill as one of North America's ``Top 10 Party Schools.'' Quebec is one of the few spots in North America where the legal drinking age is 18.

McGill's reputation suffered a blow last month when the university's Redmen football team made news across North America for a hazing incident that led to the cancellation of the team's season.

`Hazegate'

Dubbed ``Hazegate'' by Montreal's Gazette newspaper for an incident the school said involved ``nudity, degrading positions and behaviors and gagging,'' the scandal sparked headlines such as ``Red-faced Redmen'' and ``McGill Just Doesn't Get It.''

The incident hasn't affected the school's recruitment efforts, Tontini said.

Intense competition from other schools in Canada and abroad may be a bigger deterrent for prospective students. McGill's MBA program didn't make Business Week's list of the top 10 non-U.S. programs last year. Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, topped the list, which included four Canadian schools.

The business program aside, students such as Blake say the school gives a brand-name education at a bargain price.

``When you come out of McGill, you know that people the world over will know where you came from,'' Blake said.

Conestoga President John Tibbits and Board of Governors Chair William Dahms will host a reception and awards presentation for Conestoga's first recipients of entrance scholarships to degree programs. In all, 19 students will receive a total of $26,000.

Most scholarships are going to students now in the first semester of their first year at Conestoga, but several will go to "bridging" students, who have already completed a college diploma or university degree and have gained entry directly into the first semester of the third year.

These scholarships are based on academic excellence achieved in the most recent period prior to entering Conestoga. Sponsoring the scholarships are the College, the Alumni Association of Conestoga College, and businesses such as COM DEV International, Manulife Financial and Melloul Blamey Construction.

The event will highlight the winners, their families, College officials and faculty, scholarship sponsors and secondary school teachers identified by the winners as having had a major formative influence on them.

Degree Program Scholarship Evening
Thursday, December 1, 7-9 p.m.
Blue Room, Conestoga College
Doon Campus, Kitchener

Professional) designation granted through the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario.

Organizational Leadership is a unique program. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, with an emphasis on analytical and communication skills combined with an investigation and understanding of historical and contemporary resources that can be used to understand leadership and translate understanding into action. Examined extensively are areas such as research, strategy, organizational dynamics and ethics.

Conestoga and Laurier Brantford signed their initial agreement in February 2005, whereby graduates of two Conestoga diploma programs -- Journalism, and General Arts and Science -- can apply for advanced standing towards a Laurier BA in Contemporary Studies.

Conestoga now has its own, four-year baccalaureate programs, as well as baccalaureate programs offered in co-operation with universities such as McMaster and Windsor. Conestoga is one of Ontario's largest colleges in the apprenticeship education area, and a leader in developing and offering innovative programs, such as combined diploma/apprenticeship studies.

The College also boasts a 94 per cent graduate employment rate -- the best of any college in the province.

Parents Night visitors will also learn about how Conestoga programs directly relate to career opportunities, as well as about the many financial aid and student services/student life programs available.

Parents can reserve a place at the December 7 event by contacting Conestoga at 519-748-5220, ext. 3656 (519-763-9525, ext. 3656 in the Guelph area).

The in motion program is a partnership between the University of Saskatchewan, the Saskatoon Health Authority, the City of Saskatoon and ParticipACTION. It provides a physical activity health promotion model that incorporates public awareness in combination with target population strategies all supported by research. The initiative has been adopted by various communities throughout Saskatchewan, Manitoba as well as Abbotsford BC. In addition, the in motion "team" has provided consultative services to many other communities across Canada.

Bruce Gordon, Senior Executive Vice President and General Manager, Canada for Manulife Financial says "Manulife Financial is committed to helping Canadians live longer and healthier lives so we're very pleased to support this collaborative partnership. Our donation to the University of Saskatchewan will help them share this successful active living strategy with other communities across Canada."

The gift will be used to develop and maintain a new Canada in motion website which will include a new health self-assessment tool. It will support the 2006 in motion National Training School which will bring together local, national and international experts to share strategies and research regarding physical activity and health promotion. The gift will also be used to support a post-doctoral position at the University of Saskatchewan. This person will translate research results into new materials for health professionals and

community groups. In recognition for Manulife's support, the three year

post-doctoral position will be called the Manulife Financial Scholar in Physical Activity and Health Promotion.

"We've seen the impact community-wide 'active-living' can have on community development and empowerment in areas such as health-care delivery, program sustainability and the problem-solving capabilities of a community," says Karen Chad, U of S Associate Vice President - Research, and lead researcher for the in motion project. "By supporting our efforts to take this model to all Canadians, Manulife is playing a role in improving the physical, mental and economic well-being of the nation."

The donation was made through the University's Thinking the World of our Future fundraising campaign. Campaign priorities include enhancing the student experience, increasing financial support for students and improving facilities to provide better opportunities for learning and research.

This funding is part of a $91.8-million investment in universities across the country to support the appointment of 126 Canada Research Chairs, also announced today by Minister Lapierre. These senior research positions, vital for Canada's economic, scientific and social development, were further supported with $10.4 million from the CFI.

"The work of the Canada Research Chairs is of crucial importance for Canadians. Whether it is in the areas of health, the environment or education, the new knowledge developed through research has a direct impact on making our communities better, safer places to live and to raise the next generation," said Minister Emerson.

"Quebec has received a total of $465.2 million for 426 Canada Research Chairs since the program began in 2000," said Minister Lapierre. "These awards are helping to enhance the research capabilities of our institutions across the province, which will benefit all Canadians. For example, the work being done by Professor Lamarche at the Université Laval is contributing significantly to the battle against cardiovascular disease."

Université Laval's Benoît Lamarche is the returning Canada Research Chair in Nutrition, Functional Foods and Cardiovascular Health. He is investigating the relationship between diet and cardiovascular health. According to Professor Lamarche, eating habits can radically reduce the damage caused by cardiovascular disease. In particular, his research is designed to study the impact of eating habits on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease among women, a group for whom little information is currently available. Professor's Lamarche's work has had a considerable impact globally -- his publications have been cited more than 100 times in less than four years, which is four times the typical rate.

The Canada Research Chairs Program (http://www.chairs.gc.ca) helps universities attract and retain some of the world's best research minds. Canada Research Chairs are recognized internationally as leaders in their fields, whether they work in the natural sciences and engineering, in the health sciences, or in the social sciences and humanities.

(www.conestogac.on.ca) and accessible by clicking on the International Business Management box on the home page.

This funding is part of a $9-million investment in five universities across the country announced today by the Honourable Eleni Bakopanos, Member of Parliament for Ahuntsic and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Social Development with special emphasis on Social Economy, on behalf of the Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for SSHRC. The funding will support research networks studying how community groups, the volunteer sector and co-operatives have created and continue to contribute to the social economy.

"Social economy organizations make an essential -- but often unrecognized -- contribution to our economy and to the health and well-being of all Canadians," said Ms. Bakopanos. "This research will help prepare future generations to meet the challenges facing them in building a productive economy and sustainable communities."

Dr. Jack Quarter, with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, will head the Southern Ontario research network. With his partners, he will study the impact of the social economy, including the role of co-operatives in integrating immigrants and refugees within mainstream society and the link between organic farming and sustainable rural communities. The regional network will also focus on Ontario's mandatory community service program and its impact on introducing students to the social economy.

"The Government of Canada recognizes the important role of the community in helping people across Ontario," said Minister Volpe. "The funding announced today will lead to innovative ideas about real life issues such as the economy, job creation, immigration, religion and neighbourhood development, and help us achieve targeted objectives in these and other areas."

SSHRC is an independent federal government agency that funds university-based research and graduate training through national peer-review competitions. SSHRC also partners with public and private sector organizations to focus research and help develop better policies and practices in key areas of Canada's social, cultural and economic life.

Gold partners of Skills Canada – Ontario include: Union Gas, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, DeWalt, Delta, Porter-Cable, the City of Waterloo, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, the Ministry of Education, Human Resources Skills Development Canada, Automated Tooling Systems (ATS), CKCO-TV, Algonquin College, Niagara College, Georgian College, Canadore, College, Fanshawe College, Humber College, and Conestoga College.

McGill, Guelph and Trent Named Research Universities of the Year

Toronto October 25, 2005 In Fiscal 2004, for the first time ever, Canada's top 50 research universities posted $5.04 billion in sponsored research income, a 17.7% increase over Fiscal 2003. Sponsored research income includes both government and non-government sources. The University of Toronto remained in top position on Canada's Top 50 Research Universities List 2005, reporting $624 million in sponsored research income for Fiscal 2004, increasing 16.8% over Fiscal 2003. Increasing their research income by 58.6% over last year, gave McGill University 2nd spot this year, up from 4th with $543.5 million. Université de Montréal was #3, moving down 1 spot from last year with $446.2 million, increasing 13.1%. University of British Columbia came in 4th place this year, down from 3rd last year with $363.3 million of research income, increasing moderately by 4.1%. University of Alberta also with a significant increase of 31.9%, rounded out the top 5 with $360 million, moving up 1 place to 5th from 6th last year. In all, 15 universities were included in Research Infosource's $100 Million Club, each attracting more than $100 million in research income in Fiscal 2004, up from 14 universities last year.

“These are indeed golden times for university research in Canada. The challenge now is to turn research into benefits to the economy and society”, said Ron Freedman, CEO of Research Infosource.

McGill University, University of Guelph and Trent University were named Research Universities of the Year in their respective categories by Research Infosource Inc., which today also released Canada's Top 50 Research Universities List 2005.

For Research University of the Year, in the Medical/doctoral category, McGill University came 1st with 97.3 points out of a possible 100, University of Toronto was 2nd with 91.7, and McMaster University was 3rd with 90.0 points. The University of Guelph topped the Comprehensive category with 80.7 points followed by University of Waterloo with 73.0, and University of Victoria rounded out the category with 60.0 points. In the Undergraduate category, Trent University was in 1st place with 52.7 points, Royal Military College came 2nd with 49.3 points, and University of Prince Edward Island was 3rd with 47.0 points. Half the points were awarded based on financial indicators: total sponsored research income, research income per full-time faculty position, and research income per full-time graduate student. The other half was based on the number of publications per full-time faculty.

Research intensity (sponsored research income per full-time faculty) grew by 14.6% in Fiscal 2004, reaching an average of $149,900 per faculty position. Eight institutions posted intensity levels in excess of $200,000 per faculty, up from 5 universities last year: McGill University ($381,100), University of Toronto ($263,100), Université de Montréal ($244,300), University of Alberta ($241,000), McMaster University ($233,600), Queen's University ($233,000), Université Laval ($207,500) and University of British Columbia ($200,800).

The lion's share of sponsored research income at Canadian universities continued to come from Government sources, accounting for 70% in 2004. Corporate sources made up 13%, while Non-corporate sources (individuals, foundations, etc.) contributed 12% of the total. Investments and endowments made up the remainder.

Ranking universities by sponsored research income growth for Fiscal 2004, the top 5 gainers (universities that increased their sponsored research income the most) included École de technologie supérieure (115.7%), Concordia University (77.1%), Acadia University (67.6%), Université de Moncton (60.4%) and McGill University (58.6%). The 5 largest declines were at University of Northern British Columbia (-41.8%), Wilfrid Laurier University (-38.6%), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (-16.8%), University of Saskatchewan (-7.6%) and Cape Briton University (-6.7%).

Regionally, gains in university research income between Fiscal 2003 and 2004 were made in almost all the provinces: Alberta (39.3%), New Brunswick (37.7%), Prince Edward Island (35.7%), Québec (23.0%), Nova Scotia (18.1%), Newfoundland (17.6%), Ontario (14.5%) and British Columbia (4.2%). Research income declined in Saskatchewan (-3.3%) and Manitoba (-2.7%).

Canada's Top 50 Research Universities 2005 and Research Universities of the Year 2005 and analysis are available on the Research Infosource website, www.researchinfosource.com. The data were obtained from Statistics Canada and the Research Infosource Canadian University R&D database. An in-depth Canada’s Top Research Universities Report 2005, based on 68 universities is slated for publication later this year. Research Infosource Inc., a division of The Impact Group, is Canada's source of R&D intelligence. Drawing from an extensive database, Research Infosource Inc. publishes Canada's Top 100 Corporate R&D Spenders List, Canada's Top 50 Research Universities List, and specialized reports.

President Tibbits remarked, "I congratulate CSI for having the vision and making the commitment to this centre, which will raise the quality of experience for our students. We want the highest possible success rates for our students, so quality of experience is very important in attracting and retaining the best possible students for Conestoga."

CSI President Falconer said, "I want to thank the students of this college for their trust and financial support." He added that the student association shares the College's goal of attracting, retaining and graduating more students. He further stated, "Whether they are new students, returning students or returning alumni who are furthering their academic certification, this new space will offer unparalleled opportunity for students to succeed. It will house the important and necessary services that students expect and enjoy."

The $6.5-million project will be student-financed in large part, and entail renovation of 16,000 sq. ft. of the existing Doon campus main building, plus construction of 31,000 sq. ft. of new space.

When completed, the Student Centre will feature not only amenities such as a bistro, student lounge, study rooms, games room, broadcast booth for CJIQ-FM and retail space, but also include direct access to a number of important student services: counseling, student advisement, health services, disability services, a testing centre, an adaptive technology lab, computer stations and student government offices (including meeting space for student clubs and associations).

The directory lists 141 companies, which employ nearly 13,000
Canadians and generate more than $3.5 billion in annual sales. Other
key statistics about the companies include:

- nearly 30 of the firms are listed on public stock exchanges, with a
collective market capitalization of $10 billion;

- six firms have a market capitalization of more than $500 million;
and

- seven firms are among the top 100 R&D spenders in Canada.

Ten universities account for 98 of the 141 companies:

- University of British Columbia - 17

- University of Toronto - 14

- University of Waterloo - 14

- University of Alberta - 12

- University of Calgary - 8

- Universite de Sherbrooke - 8

- Queen's University - 7

- Universite Laval - 6

- University of Saskatchewan - 6

- Simon Fraser University - 6

"The exciting new companies profiled in this publication show how the
commercialization of new ideas delivers wealth and jobs to Canadians," said
Nigel Lloyd, NSERC's Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer.
"These companies are the product of the cutting edge research found in this
country's universities and NSERC is proud to have played a role in supporting
this research."

The 141 companies have headquarters across Canada in nearly all provinces, with
almost three-quarters of these companies located in Ontario, Quebec and British
Columbia. The highest revenues and the highest number of employees are found in
companies located in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta.

The Research Means Business directory is available on line at
http://www.nserc.gc.ca/research-business or by calling NSERC at (613) 996-3078.

NSERC is a federal agency whose role is to make investments in people,
discovery and innovation for the benefit of all Canadians. With an annual
budget of more than $860 million, the agency supports more than 22,000
university students and postdoctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC
promotes discovery by funding more than 10,000 university professors every year
and fosters innovation by encouraging more than 600 Canadian companies to
participate and invest in university research projects.

Mr. Zimmerman will be presenting at 10 a.m. and his presentation will last 60 minutes. Please contact school librarian Roberta Ellington for more details.

National School Library Day, to be celebrated on the 4th Monday in October, was proclaimed by Roch Carrier, National Librarian of Canada, at the National School Library Summit held in Ottawa in June of 2003. The first National School Library Day was held on Monday, October 27th, 2003.

Biography of Werner Zimmerman

Werner grew up outside Hamilton, Ontario. He studied Fine art at the University of Guelph before spending time in Povungnituk, Arctic Quebec as Printmaking Advisor. Left in the early 80's to pursue painting career before unexpectedly becoming involved with illustrating and writing children's books. Also spent a number of years as drawing instructor in the animation department at Sheridan College. Werner now makes his home in the Bruce Peninsula where he maintains a studio, and far too big of a garden. Loves to sail, kayak and hike.

Published Works

Pippin The Christmas Pig, Scholastic Canada 2003

Snow Day, Scholastic Canada, 1999

Brave Highland Heart, Stoddart/Fitzhenry& Whiteside, 1999

Each One Special, Orca, 1998

Farmer Joe Babysits, North Winds / Scholastic 1997

Whatever You Do, Don't Go Near That Canoe, Northwinds / Scholastic, 1996

Ich Trau Mich Fast Alles, Lappan Germany, 1995

In My Backyard, Scholastic, 1992

Finster Frets, Stoddart, 1992

Alphonse Knows - A Circle Is Not A Valentine

Alphonse Knows - Zero Is Not Enough

Alphonse Knows - Twelve Months Make a Year

Alphonse Knows - The Colour of Spring, Oxford/Fitzhenry & Whiteside 1990

Farmer Joe Goes to the City, Scholastic, 1990

Henny Penny, Scholastic 1989

Farmer Joe's Hot Day, Scholastic 1987

Partnership With City of Kitchener And Diocese of Hamilton Includes New Downtown Community Centre And Restoration Of Historic St. Mary’s Parish Hall

Kitchener – The Waterloo Catholic District School Board – in partnership with the City of Kitchener and Diocese of Hamilton -- will officially open the new Waterloo Region Catholic Education Centre on Monday, October 24, 2005.
The opening ceremonies (which are open to the public) begin at 5:30 p.m. in the newly-restored St. Mary’s Parish Hall. The Most Reverend Anthony Tonnos, Bishop of Hamilton and spiritual leader of Waterloo Region’s Roman Catholic community, is the guest of honour.

Prior to the opening ceremonies, an open house for school board staff will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. All staff from across Waterloo Region are invited. The day’s events will conclude at 7 p.m. with a special blessing of the Chapel by Bishop Tonnos.
Relocating the Board’s approximately 180 administrative staff to the former St. Mary’s High School led directly to the establishment of the new Kitchener Downtown Community Centre in the portion of the building containing the former SMH gym -- and also allowed restoration of the historic Parish Hall (which is now shared by the Board, the Parish and the City). The innovative Board / City / Diocese partnership is seen as a model of cooperation by other jurisdictions.
Beyond being a model of community-minded cooperation, however, the new facility also proved a catalyst in the ongoing revitalization of Downtown Kitchener.
In it’s 2004 Annual Report, the City of Kitchener said: “The birth of the Education and Knowledge Creation Cluster downtown [which now includes WLU and U of W – and will soon include a new Kitchener Public Library] occurred with the news that the Waterloo Catholic District School Board offices would move to the former St. Mary’s High School in downtown Kitchener. This first partnership also gave the City the opportunity to develop the adjacent Downtown Community Centre, a much-needed facility that will help meet the needs of our diverse and growing population in the core.”
A Catholic educational facility has stood on the site of the new Catholic Education Centre since St. Mary’s Elementary School was first established in 1858 – making what has locally become known as the “Cathedral Block” the hub of Catholic Education in Waterloo Region and a vital player in the long-term development of Kitchener.

They learned it's possible to measure the viability (life and death) of a bacterial culture by making electrochemical recordings of respiration, just as a doctor measures a patient's lung capacity. Further, by killing the bacteria with antibiotics, they found that respiration measurements were much faster than standard methods for determining drug effectiveness.

The presence of an effective antibiotic causes a decrease in the respiration of the bacteria, while the presence of an antibiotic to which the bacteria is resistant does not cause any change in the bacteria's respiration. The results of this antibiotic susceptibility test indicate which antibiotics a physician should use to fight the patient's infection or disease.

Later, it was shown that the new measurement technique could also be used to identify bacteria. Respiration measurements made after exposure of the bacteria to various chemicals (such as sugars and amino acids) yield a unique pattern of responses for each bacterial species. With a database of known bacterial respiration measurements, unknown bacteria can easily be identified, Mikkelsen said.

Antibiotic susceptibility and microbial identification tests are routine procedures used in outpatient and hospital laboratories to determine which antibiotic is most effective against a disease-causing organism. The use of these tests has been steadily increasing due to the introduction of new drugs as well as the emergence of antibiotic resistant organisms. The test results provide attending physicians with valuable information when prescribing drugs to patients.

Doctors often begin treatment by prescribing expensive wide-spectrum antibiotics because susceptibility tests currently require at least two to three days. Once the results are available, the prescription is often changed. Getting these test results sooner not only provides a cost savings to the healthcare system by getting the correct drug faster but can also improve patient outcomes significantly and can reduce mortality.

Mikkelsen said she created RapidLabs to ensure the discovery would be successfully delivered to healthcare institutions around the world.

The company has an association with the Waterloo Region Microbiology Lab at Grand River Hospital. Dr. Dimitrios Divaris, Pathologist and Medical Director of the lab, has collaborated with Mikkelsen since the early days of the formation of the company. The firm has assembled a Scientific Advisory Board chaired by Divaris that is made up of practicing clinical microbiologists and pathologists. RapidLabs has located its offices at the hospital to facilitate further cooperation with the microbiology lab.

RapidLabs, which was incorporated in 2002, has raised equity financing and is proceeding on the development of its first product. The leadership team is made up of Tom Walker, President and CEO, former UW faculty member Doug Sparkes, Chief Operating Officer, and Hendrikse, Vice-President, Marketing and Business Development. (For information, go to: www.rapidlabs.com)

Construction is set to begin on the new Student Centre at Conestoga College. The project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2006. To mark the occasion, Conestoga President John Tibbits and Conestoga Students Inc. President Justin Falconer will officiate at a groundbreaking ceremony.

Monday, October 24

11:30 a.m.-12 noon

Student Centre site, adjacent to A Wing, Doon Centre Building

Doon Campus, Kitchener

Following the ceremony, a reception takes place at the Sanctuary (the existing student lounge at Doon).

The $6.5-million project will be student-financed in large part, and entail renovation of more than 15,000 sq. ft. of the existing building, plus construction of more than 30,000 sq. ft. of new space.

When completed, the Student Centre will feature not only amenities such as a bistro, student lounge, study rooms, games room, broadcast booth for CJIQ-FM and retail space, but also include direct access to a number of important student services: counseling, student advisement, health services, disability services, a testing centre, an adaptive technology lab, computer stations and student government offices (including meeting space for student clubs and associations).

Kitchener The Waterloo Catholic District School Board today released the 2004-05 Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) test results for its Grade 3, 6 and 9 students once again posting scores above or tied with the provincial average in all test categories in all three grades.

The tests in grades three and six covered reading, writing and mathematics. The grade nine test covered mathematics alone. The percentage figures provided below show the percentage of the Boards students who score at levels three and four on a scale of one to four thereby meeting or exceeding government expectations.

Students in all publicly-funded elementary schools in Ontario -- including 47 Catholic elementary schools and five Catholic high schools in Waterloo Region -- wrote the tests in May and June, 2005. The provincial average is noted in brackets beside the WCDSB score in each test category below.

WCDSB Grade 3 Results: Reading 62% (59%), Writing 64% (61%), Mathematics 68% (66%).

WCDSB Grade 6 Results: Reading 65% (63%), Writing 60% (59%), Mathematics 60% (60%).

WCDSB Grade 9 Applied Level Results: Mathematics 36% (26%)

WCDSB Grade 9 Academic Level Results: Mathematics 75% (72%)

This years results show that, overall, Waterloo Regions Catholic schools are doing a very fine job with their strategies to improve literacy and numeracy, said Heather Cullen, Superintendent of Instruction and Assessment. Its a good news story any way you look at it. The steady progress our schools have made over time demonstrates that impressive results can be achieved when everyone in the education community including parents, teachers and administrators work together in an ongoing effort to improve student achievement. We are proud of our success so far, and continue to work hard in moving forward.

All parents will be receiving their childs individual student report later this Fall. The individual reports provide parents with details regarding their childrens results and include a summary of the school, board and provincial results.

Further information and provincial results are available on the EQAO website: www.eqao.com

* Countries such as India and China are competing with Canada for business, with a number of Canadian jobs being outsourced overseas.

* Rapidly changing technology is making many of today's work skills obsolete.

* Canada has an aging population and faces a shortage of skilled workers as more workers retire.

The Pathway to Prosperity consultation seeks to gather as much information and as many ideas as possible. The discussion paper, which is on the website, asks participants to respond to three questions:

1) What are the workforce and skill-requirement needs for you and your sector today and in the next five-to-ten years?

2) What is needed from educational institutions, employers, government and individuals to help resolve our labour and skills shortage?

3) What should be the priorities for a National Skills Strategy?

Concerned and interested Ontarians can take part in this Web-based consultation through November. Once the final report is ready, it, too, will be available at www.pathwaytoprosperity.ca.