Bow Valley College Strathmore closing

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Bow Valley College’s Strathmore Campus will close next year, and its Entrepreneur Centre has already shuttered.

Bow Valley College (BVC) launched the Entrepreneur Centre in September 2018 to serve Strathmore, Chestermere, Siksika Nation and surrounding communities. At the time, it was announced this expansion was made possible by a $393,000 federal grant from the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund.

But the Strathmore Entrepreneur Centre is now closed permanently, explained Leah Wack, BVC’s dean of regional stewardship. 

“We had hoped to find a model that we could make it permanent, but we weren’t able,” said Wack.

Part of the reason for the centre closing was the grant funding was temporary and not extended. This created funding challenges, as operating funds the college receives from the province could not be redirected to support the entrepreneurial programming, she explained.

But funding was only part of the reason the centre is closing. Another driver is the presence of multiple organizations in the area all providing resources and support for entrepreneurs.

“With the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the province, there’s a lot of players in that space,” said Wack, adding that competition led BVC to evaluate its role in supporting entrepreneurial development.

While the services offered by the Entrepreneur Centre were used by local business owners, they were costly for BVC to provide. For the program to remain viable without the grant funding, they would have had to start charging for these services. But paying for the full cost of these services is simply not an option for many business owners, especially when many are challenged by the economy and public health restrictions.

“That’s always a problem for entrepreneurs, especially those starting out, to find funds to participate in those types of things,” noted Wack.

The Strathmore BVC campus will close altogether in July 2022 because it is no longer financially feasible for the college to operate a facility in Strathmore. Wack said it will be concentrating resources on providing improved accessibility from a few strategic locations.

However, the college will continue to work with and serve the local community as part of its regional stewardship mandate from the province. Improvements in technology and remote learning will allow it to offer programs and services online that could once only be done in person, she added.

“Many of the programs and services that we offer to regional residents are accessible from anywhere, so our focus will be to continue providing and improving that accessibility,” said Wack. “We are in the process of developing a community advisory committee, comprised of representatives from various local organizations, to help us form those plans.”