This resource was developed through a collaboration between Canadore College (ON) and Selkirk College (BC). Below, we describe the location and context of these colleges so readers have a sense of the places this resource was developed in, as well as the context that surrounds trades education at each institution.
Canadore College
Canadore College is situated in the thriving city of North Bay, which provides services to a regional catchment area of 112,000 people. The city is located on the traditional territory of the Nipissing First Nation and lands protected by the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850, making it a culturally significant area. North Bay is a rapidly growing city with a population of 54,000 residents and is conveniently located just three and a half hours from major Ontario centres like Toronto and Ottawa. Canadore College is committed to supporting Indigenous learners, with approximately 700 Indigenous students studying across its three campuses in North Bay and its satellite campus in Parry Sound, situated on the traditional territory of Wasauksing. Nearly 20 percent of Canadore’s on-campus student population comes from diverse Indigenous nations. At Canadore, Indigenous students are supported through the First People’s Centre, a comprehensive cultural and academic support centre.
In Ontario, all construction is regulated by Ontario’s Building Code, which includes new and expanded energy-efficiency programs commonly called Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) programs.
Selkirk College
Selkirk College is a regional college located on the territories of the Sinixt, Syilx, Ktunaxa, and Secwépemc peoples in what some call the West Kootenay and Boundary regions of southeast British Columbia. The region is primarily rural, consisting of small communities dispersed among several valleys in the Selkirk and Monashee mountain ranges. The Province of British Columbia has adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which establishes the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the Province’s framework for reconciliation. Selkirk College is also committed to truth, reconciliation, Indigenization and decolonization as laid out in its Indigenization Plan. In British Columbia, all construction is governed by the BC Building Code, and some local governments have voluntarily adopted the BC Energy Step Code, which means that new construction in some communities is required to meet higher levels of energy efficiency.