Algonquin College will shutter its satellite campus in the historic town of Perth at the end of August 2026 because of severe financial challenges facing many Canadian colleges and universities following the federal imposition of new international student cap.
The Perth campus has been home for more than a half-century to the Algonquin College Heritage Institute, which offers a flagship program in heritage carpentry and joinery.
Since 1970, the campus has been an integral part of the picturesque town about 90 kilometres southeast of Ottawa.
“For over five decades, the Perth Campus has provided invaluable educational opportunities, shaped countless careers, and strengthened the fabric of our Town,” Perth Mayor Judy Brown said in a media release after Algonquin’s announcement. “Its heritage trades programs, in particular, have left a lasting legacy that can be seen in the beautiful heritage buildings that define our community.”
Thewo-year program offering a heritage carpentry and joinery diploma provides students with preservation and restoration skills that can be applied to historical architecture.
Although the Perth programs will move to Algonquin’s Ottawa campus, advocates say the relocation will diminish the quality of the program.
Jack Hollinger, Algonquin’s heritage program coordinator said he believes the change will hurt students’ experience.
Perth is critical to how Hollinger and his colleagues have structured the program. Hollinger explained instructors tour classes around the historic town, using its heritage buildings to buttress classroom content.
Building conservation is the stuff that’s going to save the planet. We are building structures knowing full well that the materials that we’re putting into these buildings are supposed to last maybe 25 or 30 years. When the building goes to landfill, we build another one. But there are methodologies to build things that last centuries if we know how.
— Jack Hollinger, heritage program coordinator, Algonquin College
“The people of Perth are really proud of the program. They are very generous, inviting students into their house to record historical elements for their projects,” Hollinger said.
“Building conservation is the stuff that’s going to save the planet,” he said.
“We are building structures knowing full well that the materials that we’re putting into these buildings are supposed to last maybe 25 or 30 years,” Hollinger added. “When the building goes to landfill, we build another one. But there are methodologies to build things that last centuries if we know how.”
Perth was established as a military settlement shortly after the War of 1812. Six landmarks in Perth are recognized on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
With historic buildings around every corner and renovated facilities dedicated to timber framing, log construction and traditional joinery, Perth is the perfect place for the heritage program, Hollinger said. Relocating to Ottawa, he added, will harm the specialized program.
“The campus where the program will move is in Ottawa. It is anything but a heritage district — it is suburban.”
The closing of the Perth campus is part of Algonquin’s response to a major financial crisis facing the Ottawa college and other postsecondary institutions across Ontario following new federal restrictions on the number of international students allowed into Canada. Those students have been a major revenue source for years in the face of tuition freezes and what they have complained is “chronic underfunding” by provincial governments.
Last month, Algonquin also announced plans to cut 37 diploma programs. In November, Sheridan College suspended 40 programs and Seneca College temporarily closed its Markham satellite campus.
Although post-secondary institutions are cutting, advocates say there remains a big need for skilled building restoration workers in light of the climate crisis.
Robert Pajot sits on the board of directors at Heritage Ottawa and graduated from Algonquin’s heritage carpentry and joinery program in 1991. According to Pajot, heritage restoration programs teach students how to repair existing buildings instead of demolishing them and contributing to landfills.
“These are trades that understand how historic materials were conceived, how they work together and how they can be modified to meet the current operational standards by making them more energy efficient,” Pajot said.
According to Pajot, the heritage carpentry and joinery program must be protected, as it intersects cultural values with environmental conservation.
Ahead of the board of directors meeting that confirmed Algonquin’s closure of the Perth campus, Heritage Ottawa urged the college to identify ways to share the Perth campus to cut operational costs, or make the necessary investments to fully accommodate the program at its Woodroffe campus.
“The two-year program provides participants with the skills and knowledge critical to the preservation, renovation and restoration of historical architecture,” the advocacy group stated before the closure was finalized. “Heritage Ottawa is calling on the Board of Governors to reconsider this course of action.”
