Town of Collingwood staff has gone from “zero to 100” since the summer to work on bringing new post-secondary options to town.
However, as of now, the possibility seems unlikely in the near future.
During their regular meeting on Feb. 24, councillors received an update from the town’s economic development manager Johanna Griggs on work underway to bring new post-secondary options to Collingwood, as a goal in the town’s community-based strategic plan passed last summer.
“With limited resources and competing priorities, it’s challenging to focus the time and energy needed to successfully address the recommendations in the community-based strategic plan,” said Griggs.
As part of the plan, the town aims to enhance the vibrancy of Georgian College and attract new college/universities to town.
At Monday’s meeting, Griggs talked about what the town has done to further those goals, including supporting business tours for Collingwood high school students, meeting with the developer for the Poplar Health and Wellness Village and Lakehead University, hosting roundtables on economic development, partnering with Georgian College and the County of Simcoe to deliver management essentials training sessions and participating in Georgian’s own strategic planning.
The town has partnered with the City of Barrie to bring more skilled trades programs to Georgian’s Collingwood campus. The town has also continued their partnerships with the Small Business Enterprise Centre and Georgian’s Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre in Barrie.
Currently, the town is exploring a partnership with Lakehead University to deliver a hospitality specialized high skills major program.
“There are several challenges we’re currently facing,” said Griggs, noting that transportation, affordable housing, systemic underfunding, student interest and immigration policies are major barriers to getting new post-secondary options in Collingwood.
This week, Georgian College announced they had been adjusting to serious financial constraints resulting from chronic underfunding and more recent policy changes by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Through that announcement, the college said they offered a voluntary retirement program to staff, and layoffs. The college is facing a financial gap of $45 million for 2025-26, and 45 layoffs, 31 voluntary retirements and 10 vacancy closures have already occurred this month as a result.
“Colleges and universities are systematically underfunded, which severely limits their ability to pilot programs without strong evidence of market alignment and student interest,” said Griggs.
She said when the town partnered with the county for the management essentials training and offered it for free, the program was oversubscribed. However, when the college tried continuing the program and charged a $200 fee to run it, there were no registrations.
Griggs told councillors that when the City of Barrie announced that Lakehead University was going to build a new STEM hub in their downtown, the municipality fronted $9.9 million for that endeavour.
“In order to facilitate the investment in a new campus, a significant investment is required from various levels of government, including ours,” said Griggs.
Coun. Christopher Baines said bringing new post-secondary options to Collingwood was “most necessary and extraordinary.”
“This is so important to the future of this town,” he said.
Coun. Kathy Jeffery asked if the town should be speaking to students directly, rather than just gathering feedback from business owners and the workforce when making plans.
“If we asked potential students what they need and what they could get locally... it could give us the foundation to build post-secondary education upon,” she said, while suggesting that the town should be seeking provincial involvement.
“Clearly, if we can’t get it off the ground, we’re not meeting the needs,” said Jeffery.
Mayor Yvonne Hamlin, a vocal proponent for new post-secondary options in Collingwood, acknowledged how much work had been done to-date on the file.
“Thank you for moving this matter from zero to 100,” she said.
Hamlin said it was important to have both post-secondary education and businesses in the same community.
“I’m a huge champion to beef up our post-secondary here,” she said, adding that council would take up the charge on provincial advocacy.
Moving forward, Griggs said the town would continue to keep an open dialogue with post-secondary institutions and explore opportunities as resources permit.
At the end of discussion, the town’s planning director Summer Valentine said that the town would be working on an economic development master plan in 2026, that would map out a more concrete path toward bringing more post-secondary options to Collingwood in the future.