Southeast College could capitalize on opportunities in Moosomin
March 10, 2025, 3:54 pm
Kara Kinna
Southeast College announced last week it is its Moosomin campus to the shock and disappointment of some in the community. The college cited lack of enrollment and cost as the reason for closing the Moosomin campus.
The college was down to offering only one program in Moosomin—the electrical program—and said the campus was largely vacant and there was no reason to continue with a campus in Moosomin.
This shocked a lot of people since Moosomin is such a busy town. We have an abundance of trades. We have an abundance of ag implement and service businesses. We have the world’s largest potash mine down the road, and the second largest just down the road from that. We have energy such as wind, natural gas and oil. We have a massive manufacturing plant nearby (Vaderstad). We are a regional health care centre with a very busy hospital, nursing home, long term care, and a medical clinic with more doctors per capita than any other community. So the college’s assertion that they couldn’t make a campus work in Moosomin simply didn’t make sense.
Looking at the list of courses being offered elsewhere by the college, it’s easy to see that the Southeast College failed Moosomin.
In Estevan, Weyburn and Assiniboia for 2025-26 they are offering a bachelor of science in nursing, a business diploma in management, continuing care assistant certificate, electrician, heavy equipment and truck and transport technician, heavy equipment operator, industrial mechanic, mental health and addictions counselling, plumbing and pipefitting, power engineering technician, practical nursing, primary care paramedic, welding, and pesticide applicator.
It’s hard to imagine why all of those courses wouldn’t work in Moosomin, which is the third largest community behind Weyburn and Estevan in the college’s service area, and has the largest drawing area in the region.
But over the years, the college has seemed more and more determined to offer very little in Moosomin. You can’t fill courses that you don’t offer—or you end up with an empty building.
I remember when the Moosomin campus was set up. The college had an abundance of programming running out of the campus—everything from safety courses to office administration courses, to English as an additional language classes, to first year university classes, to classes on how to use various office software programs, to general interest courses such as how to use Photoshop or brush up on your computer literacy skills. The college had dedicated Moosomin campus staff in place, and prided itself on matching graduates up with local employers. I attended many events at the campus over the years, and they were proud of what they offered and had accomplished.
But around five years ago things began to change. The college began to offer less and less in Moosomin, despite continuing to offer a full slate of programming in other communities, until it was down to just one course in Moosomin. And with almost no classes being offered, they made the assertion that no one wanted programming in Moosomin.
I know for a fact that this is not true. Not only have various businesses, the town, the economic development committee, and the chamber of commerce tried to work with the college to bring courses to Moosomin over the years, the college never followed through. But courses are being offered by other groups in Moosomin, and they are successful. Moosomin currently has a successful residency program for doctors—a shining example of how health care training works in Moosomin. We are the only community our size in Canada where you can complete your residency in Family Medicine. So obviously we can offer advanced education. We also have a new Visual Arts Centre that is offering all kinds of classes, and they fill up. We also have Age Friendly Moosomin which has offered courses like technology for seniors—and they fill up. And our contractors and trades people are either bringing in people on their own to offer courses to their staff, or sending their staff away to take training due to a lack of available courses being offered in Moosomin. Some businesses have tried very hard to get the college to offer courses in Moosomin to no avail.
Just last week I had a high school student who is graduating this spring tell me that many of her classmates wish they could take Sask Polytechnic courses in Moosomin—the very courses that Southeast College is tasked with offering and is offering in other communities. And I spoke with a local tradesperson who said he used to use the college for courses like First Aid, and fall arrest. I have also been told that many of the health care courses being offered elsewhere see a large number of Moosomin people driving to other locations take them. Why not, then, offer those courses in Moosomin, which is a major health care centre?
I’m not sure where things went wrong and what changed with Southeast College over the years, but it seems that the college needs to first and foremost recognize that Moosomin is a regional service centre and needs to be treated as such. In fact, Moosomin has more people within a 100 km radius than Estevan does, yet was down to one course when Estevan has nine planned.
Secondly, it’s clear that the college needs to start some pretty intense engagement in our area to see what’s needed and how they can make those courses work so that they can start serving the Moosomin area the way it should be served.
There is potential for college education in Moosomin, and the area deserves Southeast College to try to provide that education.
