Welcome, Everyone! Thanks for being here! Please feel free to introduce yourself by name here in the chat and your organization so we know who attended. Appreciate it!

Thanks for touring our Haileybury campus, Senator Black, and for supporting agriculture! :) Good to see you again!

Good Morning. We are Chris & Kyla Riach and own BearPath Farms, a cow-calf farm on Hwy 11 between Matheson & Ramore.

Thanks you, President Brule and the Algonquin team - it's great working with you!

Thank you for the invitation. A very exciting day indeed! Rob Black

Welcome, Chris and Kyla of BearPath Farms! Good to see you this morning!

Thank you, Senator Black! :)

thank you for the invitation

Barry Potter, OMAFRA New Liskeard. Glad to see the process of ag education is moving forward in this vein

Good to see you, Kim! Thanks so much for being here with us today!

Hi Barry, thanks for being here and to OMAFRA New Liskeard for your work in this sector!

Glad to hear it, Barry! :)

Appreciate your support.

I'm glad to know that Indigenous knowledge and experiences will also be included in the curriculum - so important!

Important to hear from the farmers themselves - powerful - thanks for this!

Hey Rob, Chat wont let me answer you directly for some reason, but things are good thank you.

Martin is a Rock Star!!!

Yayyy, we agree! Wonderful, Martin - thank you!

This sounds like a full and robust program! Thank you for your support of the agricultural sector especially in the north

Thanks for your question, Barry!

It's a good one.

Great to see the support from everyone!1 Love it when a plan comes together

Northern hopes to have a program advisory committee with representation from the north to help with localization. e.g. Additional learning resources tailored for Northern soils etc. -- with time. NOFIA could be a wonderful resource for this.

An advisory committee will be very useful I’m sure.

Thanks, Kim. Yes, these add much value to programs, for sure!

Thank you for the kind words and support Senator Black.

We are so pleased you joined us Senator Black and appreciate your support

communications@northern.on.ca

Martin - any comments on the agricultural background of your current faculty in the Perth campus? They will be part of the delivery to Northern students, as well as some Northern profs.

Growing up in a farming community on the prairies, this is very special to me

Great points, Kyla - and thanks to you and Chris for helping to grow the North. We will keep that in mind!

Hey Senator Black, Rob, good to have you for the announcement and congrats on the Agribition recognition this week. Well deserved.

thank you so much Chris and kyla

Thanks, Doug and Martin - appreciate this question and answer! The subject matter expertise of instructors makes Colleges so strong!

Certainly biased as I am working at the Perth Campus of Algonquin College - both the faculty team and the Program Advisory Committee are so impressive and so high quality. We are proud to work with them.

That is what College's are so good at, bringing the real world experts into our classrooms

Glad to hear it, Chris - amazing!

Very true, Audrey - it's a powerful combination.

What is the composition of the current PAC committee?

PAC = Program Advisory Committee

Are PAC's operating on a volunteer basis?

Yes

Great, thanks, Shaun. Love how community always makes colleges strong.

Such commitment! It makes a huge difference to the depth of learning.

Given this program will be available by distance, we are hoping to have Northern's PAC members drawn with representation from north-eastern and north-western Ontario. NOFIA could be a great help here.

Thank you everyone! Have a wonderful day

Thank You Everyone!

Congratulations to everyone involved in bring this to fruition!