You may have noticed the words on a yellow or blue sign popping up across Lanark County. They refer to the Perth Campus of Algonquin College, which is currently up for sale with all its programs shifting from within our county borders into Ottawa.
The entire Ontario college system is experiencing financial challenges. Difficult decisions are being made. On February 24, one such decision was carried by the Algonquin College Board of Governors to “exit the Perth, Ontario campus by the end of August 2026 to realize an annual recurring net financial benefit between one and two million dollars, plus the one-time cash proceeds from a sale transaction of the Perth campus.”
But wait — this need not be the end of the story. We will dearly miss all the valuable programming in business, health, agriculture, social sciences and more, but there is an opportunity for a second life for the campus’ unique and nationally recognized heritage construction and skilled trades training.
In 2009, the federal and provincial governments committed nearly ten million dollars of taxpayers’ money to the Perth Campus. Local donors committed close to one million. These funds helped to modernize its facilities to ensure the campus’ leadership in heritage trades and green technology for years to come. The result is a purpose-built, one-of-a-kind facility in Canada to train talent to preserve, conserve, sustain, restore, renew, re-use, retrofit and revitalize our buildings. Nothing else exists like it and it’s right here! Let’s help keep it here doing what it does best. But how?
Over 200 people came to the Royal Canadian Legion in Perth on September 25 to learn how. Attendees heard from life-long Perth resident and former Shopify Chief Operating Officer Toby Shannan, who spoke about transforming the campus into a new, locally managed, non-profit centre for heritage construction and skilled trades education. Called the “Perth Academy of Building Arts and Sciences,” it would be an internationally recognized centre for heritage restoration operating under a new sustainable business model, holding conferences and symposia on techniques such as masonry, timber framing, blacksmithing, craft carpentry and more by bringing visitors from all around North America and the world.
Consider the quote: “If you work with your hands, you are a labourer; if you work with your hands and your head, you’re a craftsperson; if you work with your hands, your head and your heart… you are an artist.” Lanark County is full of such talent.
This talent includes many students who passed through the campus but stayed, raised families, started businesses or continued their learning here. These talented artists make significant contributions to our built environment, whether it is hidden from view or on full display for all to see.
I am not sure we are fully aware of the significant contributions made to our community (let alone across Canada) by the graduates of all of Perth’s programs since it joined Algonquin College in 1970. In the case of its skilled trades training, if you have appreciated the beauty of a stone house, a timber frame or barn, a church or museum, a drystone wall, a log structure or an aesthetic addition or building conversion, then chances are you bore witness to the labours, the craft and the artistry of a heritage graduate. ‘Tis all the better for our community, our economy and our culture.
Consider the quote, “The greenest building is… one that is already built.” As Carl Elefante writes, “Buildings represent enormous investments in energy, material, and financial resources… yet hundreds of thousands of viable buildings are destroyed every year in the name of progress… such wastefulness is especially troubling as the world confronts climate change, ecological collapse, and ever-increasing demand for essential resources.” We need to better appreciate and account for “the effectiveness of retrofit practices, and most importantly, to appreciate the crucial lessons embedded in built heritage.” Simply put, if we wish to save the world, we require kind of talent that the Perth Academy can help provide.
An article written in 2016 by James Fellows for The Atlantic Magazine commented on the “11 signs a community will succeed”. Included were whether the community had several craft breweries, believe it or not (signifying entrepreneurship; check), its openness to diversity (signifying strength and resilience; check), whether it has a downtown (my goodness, we are blessed with a few; check) and whether it has a local college that the community cares about. A vibrant community relies on talent. Talent can’t be taken for granted. It requires nurturing. The Perth Academy would see talent continue to be attracted here, to stay here, to thrive here.
I love theHumm for many reasons, but mostly for how its pages weave stories of talented practitioners of ideas, culture, music, arts and sciences. I have lost count of the number of times I have read one of these stories and recited the words “graduate of the Perth campus”. Like the sentiment expressed in the Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, we must unfortunately ask ourselves “What will life be like without the Perth Campus?” Whatever the answer is, I know it will contain the word, “less”. Instead, it is time to ask, “What will life be like with the Perth Academy… and can I help bring it into being?” The answers are “more” and “yes”!
Please visit saveperthcollege.ca and make your voice heard regarding this integral part of our community and its vision for the future.