Bonavista chamber voices frustrations with College of the North Atlantic

Bonavista (TC Media) — The Bonavista Area Chamber of Commerce (BACC) is frustrated with recent decisions by the College of the North Atlantic (CNA) for the Bonavista campus. The Bonavista campus has 66 students enrolled in various courses for the fall semester. BACC officials say the CNA falls short of expectations of the business community on the Bonavista Peninsula. “CNA were on the minutes of every (chamber) meeting for 15 months in a row now,” BACC president John Norman said. “And I don’t think we have any more answers to our questions than we did 15 months ago.” The BACC is concerned about what it calls an inherent lack of communication from CNA. When the chamber attempted to contact the CNA in August, college president Ann-Marie Vaughan did answer, but the responses didn’t satisfy the chamber’s concerns, Norman said. The BACC was also upset Vaughan visited Bonavista early this summer and didn’t contact the chamber committee. In fact, the chamber did not know she was coming, until someone in the town advised a chamber member of the visit. When Vaughan arrived, she requested a meeting with the chamber with only 25 minutes’ notice, Norman said. The committee was unable to assemble on such short notice, with members all over the region, he said. “That’s not good enough,” said Norman. “It’s fine to meet with the municipality, of course — it’s the municipality that the college is located in — but it is a regional college. It services the peninsula … I don’t think (Vaughan) spends a whole lot of time in Bonavista, so when she’s here, we should have made the most of it.”