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home / 世界杯决赛2022

student-run health clinic on ice after dawson's expansion plans cancelled

dawson community is sad and frustrated about cancellation of expansion plans

by katherine wilton

feb 9 2022
read time 3 minute read
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for more than seven years, staff at dawson college has met regularly with education ministry civil servants to discuss and vet a major expansion plan that would solve dawson’s space problems and create a student-run health clinic that would serve thousands of montreal patients a year.
under the plan, dawson students would provide x-rays, ultrasounds, blood tests and other medical procedures, under the supervision of experienced teachers, in a state-of-the-art health campus in a building on ste-catherine st. between atwater ave. and wood st.
on several occasions last year, quebec premier françois legault publicly supported the $100-million expansion, which was supposed to house 830 students and 130 faculty under one roof.
the health campus, slated to open between 2026 and 2028, would give adequate space to students training to be nurses, technologists in diagnostic imaging, ultrasound, radiation oncology, social work and physiotherapy, all while quebec is crying out for healthcare workers.
for the past four years, teacher tim miller has been one of several faculty working diligently with architects and engineers to try to bring the project to fruition.

although members of the parti québécois have called for the dawson funding to be scrapped, miller had believed that the education department was committed to the project, which was part of quebec’s infrastructure program to revive the economy in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic.

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but all that changed on jan. 29, when miller heard some devastating news in a telephone call with dawson’s director general diane gauvin.

in a hastily called meeting a day earlier, higher education minister danielle mccann told gauvin that the long-planned infrastructure project would not proceed.
“i almost cried, but i didn’t want to cry in front of my boss,” said miller, a faculty member in the physiotherapy technology department.
legault defended the controversial decision, saying it was more important to fund francophone cegeps than support dawson’s expansion.
in the ensuing days, gauvin received messages of support from the heads of several francophone cegeps, who expressed their shock at the abruptness of the decision, the montreal gazette has learned.
dawson faculty who have been involved in the planning are “shocked, sad and confused,” over the decision, miller said in an interview.
the education ministry has long recognized that dawson suffers from a space deficit of 11,200 square metres or the equivalent of more than 10 typical office floors. the new health complex would cover about 9,000 square metres.
after details of mccann’s meeting with gauvin were leaked to the journal de montréal, gauvin penned a letter to the dawson community informing them of the decision.
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she wrote that the government has chosen to prioritize francophone students and said mccann urged dawson to explore options such as renting space.
with an election looming this fall, leaders of quebec’s anglophone community say the unexpected move was made to appease nationalist voters.

over the past few days, columnists in la presse and le devoir have criticized the legault government’s decision on dawson. on tuesday, la presse editorial writer nathalie collard said it was possible to protect french in quebec without “denying the needs of anglophone quebecers and their institutions.”

dawson’s board of governors is holding a special meeting wednesday night to discuss the project’s future and to respond to quebec’s decision.
dawson has state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and imaging machines, but space is so tight in the main campus that students are working in “antiquated rooms and can’t move around,” said donna varrica, dawson’s spokesperson.
“imagine having a teaching environment that can duplicate what they would be seeing in the real world,” she said of the proposed health campus. “they would be seeing patients under the supervision of experienced teachers at a time when there is a shortage of healthcare workers.”

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kwilton@postmedia.com

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