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Ranching program denied funding

District of 100 Mile Council supports TRU Ag program appeals
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South Cariboo-raised Vicky Granberg

District of 100 Mile House council recently reviewed a request from Thompson Rivers University (TRU) to send a letter to Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT) in support of funding a ranching agriculture course.

The request from TRU to bolster its application request to NDIT was put forward as a late agenda item by councillor Bill Hadden at the Jan. 24 regular council meeting.

The application from TRU is to provide funding for the curriculum development of year two of the Sustainable Ranching Program, Hadden said, adding this is a worthwhile program and should be supported at the local level.

Mayor Mitch Campsall noted NDIT's Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) had primarily denied the funding application because its members view these types of programs as a provincial government responsibility and should be funded by the appropriate ministry.

The RAC had also understood the start-up capital for the TRU program, provided from Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Committee (CCBAC) funding, was to see the program be self-sustaining going forward, Campsall added.

The mayor explained RAC members were not opposed to the program but felt this was clearly a provincial funding responsibility.

Councillor Spence Henderson suggested any support should include a letter to the provincial government petitioning them to fund this program.

However, when Hadden made the motion, seconded by Councillor Dave Mingo, council voted in favour of sending a letter to NDIT directors in support of the ASRP program, asking for reconsideration of TRUs funding application at the board's February meeting.

Hadden later said while the RAC likely had its own rational reasons for denying the funding, and the province probably should be financing it, this "very successful" program is intended to bring the ranching industry to another level.

"Why would you kill a program heading into the second year?

While this isn't agriculture technology nor is it a degree program, Hadden explained it is "more or less" a program designed around the beef industry.

Vicky Granberg is a member of a well-known pioneering ranching family in the South Cariboo, and was among the first 14 graduates of the TRU program in November, he added.

"She said to me, 'I've learned so much from this course, it's like I didn't really know anything' – and this is coming from a person who spent all of her life on a ranch."

Hadden noted Granberg earned herself the Bill Freding Memorial Entrance Award for Resilience and Innovation.

This cinched it for his belief that this is a "very good program," that "can't be allowed to fail," he explained.

"It's tailored to the Cariboo ... it's tailored to the Interior of this province.

The District councilor, who works in the forest industry, said the province is heading into a "post-beetle" situation of down-sizing these operations, and even one or two new jobs in the beef industry is important to rural communities.

"We are going to need this, and ... just think about what we eat?

"It just flies in the face of common sense to let a program like this fail for lack of funding when it can be done."