THUNDER BAY — Strong words were spoken by many in the city’s culinary scene who criticized Confederation College officials for what they said was a lack of engagement by the school ahead of its decision to suspend its culinary management program.
"To shut the door when you were negligent on not doing the consultation is not acceptable," said Roberta Sawchyn, a retired hotel general manager with nearly 30 years in the industry.
The college held a public forum in its Dibaajimogamig Lecture Theatre Monday evening about the program suspension where officials gave the school’s reasons and took questions from the roughly 150 people who attended. “We've heard your requests and want to provide more information about our decision,” the college wrote in a social media post announcing the forum.
Many people with ties to the local food and hospitality industry asked, if the program had been struggling, why didn’t the college ask for help?
“If you consult with the hospital and you consult with corrections and you consult with the hotel association and you consult with all the catering businesses and the restaurateurs in the room, this is fixable,” said Sawchyn.
“People that are in the food industry are very capable, they're very good problem solvers and within our community, a lot of them are leaders,” said longtime restaurateur Jim Stadey of Eat Local Pizza, on how the community could have been a resource.
A representative of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 First Nations across Ontario’s far north, was similarly concerned about a lack of consultation, given how quickly the First Nations population is growing and Thunder Bay's role as an education centre.
Richard Gemmill, dean of the School of Business, Hospitality and Media Arts, acknowledged there should have been more outreach, beyond the work by the culinary program’s advisory committee, whose purpose it is to discuss a program’s overall health and if and how it can be maintained.
“So, to say that there's a communication breakdown here, I'll own that — we should have talked more with more people,” Gemmill told the audience. “I'll own that, but I have had advisory committee meetings over those 10 years and made efforts to have that conversation.”
“I obviously need to try harder to get more voices at that table and to share that information more fully.”
The culinary program was one of 11 programs suspended by the college in March, meaning there are no plans to enrol students in them for the foreseeable future.
The college has cited a number of factors for the program suspensions, including fewer approved spots for international students, the lack of post-graduate work permits available for international students who complete the 11 programs, declining domestic enrolment and constraints in post-secondary funding for Ontario’s colleges.
In its presentation, led by Gemmill and Aaron Skillen the college’s vice president, academic, the college pointed to the past five years of financials that showed the program lost anywhere from $270,000 to $341,000 annually, with fall intake enrolment in the program anywhere from 18 to 33 students — with a mix of domestic and international. For fall 2025, they were projecting 18 students, all domestic, although, as of the program suspension, Gemmill said only nine had confirmed.
College president Michelle Salo wasn’t present on Monday — Gemmill told the audience she “did want to be here,” but was “unable.”
He committed to the audience, and reaffirmed to Newswatch in an interview after the public forum, that he will “definitely be engaging with community members, as many as I can possibly attract,” he said.
“I'm committed to reaching out to various … community members, to engage in a conversation about how we can continue to serve the community's needs here in Northwestern Ontario.”
Skillen echoed those thoughts. “There's no doubt there are opportunities that were brought to light and shared with the audience members with us at the college here today,” he said.
“We'd like to explore those opportunities, absolutely, going forward and, you know, just based on the level and variety of opportunities there that were cited, I think we have a number of opportunities that we can pursue.”
Local restaurateurs have already been vocal about the culinary program suspension. Additionally, the Regional Food Distribution Association will be impacted — a partnership between the two organizations led to the production of 12,000 meals last year using food donated to the RFDA.
Allan Rebelo, who used to work at the college and now teaches a culinary program at Westgate High School, wanted to see more time given to a rebuild post-COVID-19.
“We were doing a lot of cool stuff and then all of a sudden ‘boom shut it down,’” he said. “We didn't give it a chance to grow — if we started doing that three years ago, just after COVID, don't you think it takes maybe a little bit more to build that growth?”
Pete Middaugh, a longtime chef who started a petition to challenge the program’s suspension agreed. “We switched models, we switched businesses, we did all kinds of things (through COVID) and it's really unfortunate for the college to look at that and say, well, this is tough right now, and their idea was to shut the door.”
Speaking with Newswatch after the meeting, Skillen said he doesn’t think the decision was made hastily.
“It wasn't specific just to the COVID or the post-COVID period, but rather, we want to look at that on balance and we certainly know our reality from an international student enrolment has changed going forward,” he said.
In their presentation, Gemmill and Skillen proposed some options for scaled back culinary programming, including apprenticeships, contract training options for things like remote camp cooks and food service workers and continuing education options.
Some in attendance said that won’t be enough. Middaugh said he’s worried that without the college as “a hub” for the industry, where does the next generation of the city’s thriving food scene come from.
“When these people start to leave the industry or move on, where are they going to come from?” he said. “Because it won't be here — they're not going to be at this college because you've decided to shut the door.”
