Losses at Laurentian are profound for the North

Women’s and children’s health will suffer with the end of successful midwifery program

The situation at Laurentian University in Sudbury is dire. There’s so much to take in after the carnage of cuts that rocked Sudbury last week, it has truly knocked the wind out of a community dependent on Laurentian not just for jobs but for cultural enrichment and future skilled employees, entrepreneurs and workers across northern Ontario.

Critics argue the Companies’ Creditor Arrangement Act (CCAA) process is not the tool to use in the case of insolvent educational institutions. The nature of university work and culture, their reason for being, their product, is different than for widget makers. Universities produce the future, they enrich communities beyond economic metrics, they serve the people of Canada, if not the world. A more useful process would be for Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano to appoint an administrator, fire the board and senior administration, engage in discussions to bridge financing with government support and embark on a restructuring exercise based on evidence.

Instead, the government sat back, refused help and let the CCAA process unfold. Wholesale cuts were made based on student enrolment numbers without considering the impacts these programs have. It’s hard not to see this as an anti-education move, consistent with the Ford government tactic of cuts and insults to the education sector.

The midwifery program at Laurentian is one of just six across the country and the only one outside of Quebec that offers French instruction. Midwifery has been growing in popularity since the government dropped restrictions and funded midwifery care in the early 1990s. Currently, there are more women wanting midwives than midwives licensed to practice. At Laurentian, student demand is 10 applicants for every space. There is a 100 per cent employment rate. It’s the Ministry of Health that has capped enrolment, not demand. And the MoH and the MCU guarantees funding.

In fact, the program consistently returns upward of $200,000 to Laurentian every year. It also pays Laurentian for their students to take non-midwifery programs to the tune of $140,000 (2019-2020). In other words, it makes money for Laurentian. The midwifery program has not received any funding from Laurentian. The decision to close the program makes no good sense from any perspective.

By every metric, the midwifery program at Laurentian is successful. It is a highly sought after program for students in the North because midwifery care is particularly relevant for women in the North. The program at Laurentian has graduated over 400 midwives who have gone on to work all over Canada.

These midwives have specialized training in low-resource maternity care with vulnerable populations. Students tend to come from and stay and practice in the North, their skill and training desperately in demand by women who want to remain in their communities with their families and support networks over being flown out to urban centres to give birth.

They also run a pelvic teaching course utilized by other programs, notably the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and sexual assault services in the area. The administrators proved creative in engaging with other institutions outside Ontario to train midwifery students online to take up placements in those communities. That’s gone.

Their contributions to the community are immeasurable through student placements and faculty research. The loss is profound.

The Laurentian program operates as one-third of a consortium that includes Ryerson and McMaster Universities. These programs will now absorb the Laurentian program. This is in no way suitable for Laurentian students who are not getting the bilingual midwifery education, focused on remote, rural and Indigenous care for which they paid. It will also stretch the resources at these two schools which already operate at capacity. It is not hard to see this as an Indigenous woman’s equity issue, vital services cut at the whim of male administrators with no clue as to the short- or long-term effects of their actions.

Childbirth and women’s health are equity issues. Indigenous women in particular report experiencing racial discrimination in their interactions with the health system. We are collectively appalled by these life and death stories. What’s happening at Laurentian is systemic discrimination at its most embedded, where the impacts of decisions by bean-counters ignore the real world outcomes of their decisions. Women will pay the price with their bodies and those of their children.

Minister Romano needs to pause the CCAA process at Laurentian until consultation provides evidence on which to base restructuring. Open the doors and books; bring transparency to the decisionmaking process. We can’t let COVID fatigue blind us to the fiasco that is underway in Sudbury. We cannot lose schools in the North, but Laurentian is a loss for everyone. Especially pregnant Indigenous women.