The Centre Saint-Joseph, located in Saint-Chrysostome, will welcome the next generation of students in agricultural mechanics over the next three years thanks to $1.5 M in financial assistance from François Blais the Minister of Éducation, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche.
The mood was festive on Monday, September 21 because Stéphane Billette, Deputy for Huntingdon and chief government Whip, had just confirmed financial support from the Government for the DEP program in agricultural mechanics.
This project, which the Commission scolaire de la Vallée-des-Tisserands has been wanting since June 2011, required the collaboration of all the parties involved. Furthermore, a month ago, they got word the project was “Refused”. Deputy Billette had to re-explain the file to the Minister and impress upon him how important it was for the Haut-Saint-Laurent.
“This project is dear to my heart. Agriculture represents 7% of Quebec’s gross domestic product and covers 95% of the Haut-Saint-Laurent territory. The Montérégie is considered the mainstay for farm machinery. We need to have this training centre. I would like to thank Minister Blais,” Billette emphasized.
When he sold his farm, Stéphane Billette donated a number of his farm implements to the Centre Saint-Joseph to show his personal support for the project.
For Frank Mooijekind, President of the CSVT, Quebec’s acceptance of this training program was crucial. “There is a significant need for workers. To give you an idea, the centre has an employment rate of 100%. Employers come to hire students even before the 1800 hours of training over two years is completed. When students are finished, they can start work immediately,” indicated the President.
To facilitate training, there will be work to do at the Centre Saint-Joseph. It will start shortly and finish by August 2016. “We will be in a position to have two groups of 15 students at a time allowing us to train more future agricultural mechanics. As of next January, we will be able to start a new group,” explains Marc Brichau, Interim Director of the Centre Saint-Joseph.
