The fallout of a failed merger between Carlton Trail Regional College and St. Peter's College continued last week.
First, on March 22, it was announced that Rob Norris, Minister of Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration, had accepted the resignations of several members of the Carlton Trail Regional College board.
He also invoked provisions of The Regional Colleges Act to appoint an administrator to replace the board and take over day-to-day operations, effective immediately.
Under Section 28 (1) c of the Act, where "financial or significant operational problems exist in connection with a regional college," the minister may appoint a person as administrator of the regional college. The Act gives the administrator a mandate to function with the same authority as a board.
"This marks a new chapter in the evolution of Carlton Trail Regional College, an institution with a bright and promising future," Norris said in a government news release.
Graham Pearson, managing partner with Deloitte and Touche LLP in Saskatoon, has been appointed as the administrator. He takes over from former CEO Glen Kobussen, who also acted as president of St. Peter's College, whose contract with CTRC was terminated on March 17.
Pearson has served on a number of professional association and community groups, including the Saskatoon Rotary Club and the University of Saskatchewan capital campaign
Before last week, CTRC board members included chairperson Marlene Latreille, vice-chairperson Aaron Behiel, and trustees Ron Bessey, Marlene Law, Maureen Doetzel and Islay Ehlert.
It has not been revealed which board members or how many of them had resigned from the CTRC board. On the CTRC website, these positions are now listed without any names attached to them.
Over at St. Peter's College, where Kobussen has been placed on administrative leave, a board meeting was held last week.
According to Abbot Peter Novecosky, OSB, the spokesperson for the St. Peter's College board, their board made the decision to cooperate with the investigation ordered by the Ministry.
On March 21, Norris confirmed that Meyers Norris Penny (MNP), whose first report on the college merger was integral in the government's decision not to proceed with the merger at this time, has commenced a second review on governance, financial management and leadership at the colleges.
"We have no reason not to co-operate," Novecosky said.
That is the only decision the board has made so far, he stated. Audits are currently being carried out, he said, and the board will wait until that is finished before making a final decision on Kobussen's future at the institution.
Meanwhile, he added, classes at the college are going on as usual and will wrap up in about two weeks.
As for that MNP report, it was released to the public last week and states, basically, that a lack of specifics and clarity in the proposal for the merger, along with concerns about financial management, led to their recommendation to the government that the merger not proceed at this time.
The report was based on one-on-one interviews, focus group sessions, stakeholder sessions, and written submissions, as well as documentation submitted by the colleges.
It states that there were holes in the business plan and rationale for the merger, and a lack of clarity surrounding criteria for determining program offerings, among other concerns.
The most major were noted in the Management and Leadership and Financial management sections of the report.
MNP reported that the consultations "yielded significant concerns related to the executive leadership of CTRC/SPC."
The report also noted that a review of financial management at the two colleges showed that CTRC was financially stable, showing a modest surplus from year to year. "Concerns were noted, however, with respect to the financial condition of SPC and financial management practices at the college," it stated.
The consultation process also identified concerns "with respect to the level of access provided to CTRC regarding SPC's financial affairs."
The issues with the financial management identified in the report included that there was an inappropriate use of restricted funds at SPC (using scholarship or capital funds to manage operations), inconsistent observation or compliance with board motions, concerns related to an increase of the CTRC operating grant paid to SPC from $40,000 to $100,000 without sufficient documentation, and insufficient financial management practices and internal controls at SPC, to name a few.
Some other serious concerns were noted in the Project Management and Communication section of the report, which stated that the reported high level of support for the proposed merger, which came out of stakeholder consultations conducted by the colleges, "are significantly overstated and that the consultation process undertaken by SPC and CTRC is viewed by majority of stakeholders consulted during the MNP process as both insufficient and procedurally flawed."
The report also stated that "the lack of process transparency and in-depth planning and analysis has raised many questions among stakeholders that remain unanswered.... many stakeholders continue to express anxiety regarding how the merger would be implemented. These concerns reinforce the incompleteness of planning and analysis performed by the colleges to date, and highlight the limitations of the proposal process undertaken."
The report also notes that staff at the two colleges were directed to publicly support the merger and were discouraged from raising questions or challenging the process. Leadership of both colleges also indicated to staff that the merger must proceed quickly, though the reasons were unclear to certain internal stakeholder groups, the report adds.
Concerns regarding how the two colleges were effectively operating as a single entity, with a single governance structure, though they were not yet merged, were also noted in the report. Also, that the merger proposal stated that efficiencies would be created through shared resources, but did not specifically indicate where those savings would come from.
Other major concerns appeared in the Human Resources and Culture section of the report, which states that the merger proposal did not clearly state how the union and non-union employees would be merged, that there was a lack of transparency regarding the decision-making process at SPC, and that fear for the future that resulted from the resulting uncertainty among staff.
The report concluded with the recommendation that the Ministry not approve the SPC/CTRC merger proposal.
