Help Save Perth campus & Stop the SALE!
Algonquin College is planning to shut down the Perth Campus and sell it off to developers, putting an end to decades of skilled trades training and post-secondary education in our community.
But there is a solution worth fighting for and we need your help.
Led by life-long Perth resident and former Shopify COO, Toby Shannan, a local team is working to preserve and transform the campus into a new, non-profit centre for heritage construction and skilled trades education.
With strong support from local MPP, John Jordan, Toby has been working with the Government of Ontario to make his proposal become a reality.
But we need to first stop the SALE!
This is not just about saving a building.
It is about:
Maintaining local access to trades education, ensuring rural residents can train without leaving Perth, and attracting students from other regions to study here and contribute to the local economy.
Equipping students for high-demand careers in construction, addressing Ontario’s labour shortages.
Preserving Eastern Ontario’s heritage craftsmanship, continuing the legacy of programs like heritage Carpentry and joinery, and securing the BSc program in Building Management.
Contributing to solutions for the housing and labour crisis by training skilled workers locally.
The College belongs to our community. It is not Algonquin’s to sell.
The Perth Campus has been a vital part of our community since 1970 and provides the only post-secondary education in Lanark County, contributing to local heritage conservation and the community’s cultural and economic vitality.
Its students’ work, such as dry-stone walls and heritage restoration projects, is visible throughout Eastern Ontario. Our local graduates have gone on to inspiring careers throughout Canada and the world. Its heritage trades programs, particularly Heritage Carpentry and Joinery and the former stone masonry program, are unique in Canada, producing graduates who oversee the restoration work on Parliament Hill and other national heritage projects across Canada, such as the S.S. Klondike National Historic Site, the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, and Matheson House. Canada’s Dominion Sculptor, John-Phillipe Smith, who oversees the carving program on Parliament Hill, is a graduate of the Perth Campus.
In 2009, the federal and provincial governments recognized the need and enhancement of heritage trades in Perth, committing nearly $10M of taxpayers’ money for the Perth Campus. At the time, the Honourable John Baird, Canada’s Infrastructure Minister, and John Milloy, Ontario’s Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, praised the programs at Perth, while making this significant commitment to modernizing facilities at the Campus. Minister Baird stated at the time that the investment, “will ensure that Algonquin College’s Perth Campus remains a leader in heritage trades and green technology for years to come.”