Will we finally see a TransLink gondola go up to SFU?

There has been talk for years that eventually we might see a gondola built that would help to ease transportation going up to SFU mountain.

There is a current proposal for that project to be built and it looks like the City of Burnaby has put its support behind that project now.

The gondola could end up running from Production SkyTrain station up to SFU and will be a project that offers a reliable and safe transportation service to students and those in the area.

It can be difficult during the winter months for cars and public transportation buses to make their way up the mountain, the gondola would be a great addition many believe to helping keep things safer.

Not only is the gondola expected to be reliable and safe but it is also looked at as a project that could help to reduce carbon emissions in BC too.

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Gondola coming soon to SFU?

TransLink has been working on the plan for a Burnaby gondola at this area for some time to help that SFU traffic make it up the mountain and this is a project that is expected to cost millions to be fully completed.

The SFU gondola might cost some $210 million at least to be built.

The gondola would be able to make thousands of trips up the mountain on a daily basis, it’s estimated that it might make some 25,000 trips up the mountain daily. And many staff and students have been looking forward to the prospect of this happening.

The SFU Student Society has also endorsed the Burnaby gondola project too. There has been a great deal of transit chaos in the past and that gondola is expected to be a much needed solution to that problem.

A large portion of students are already using public transit to make their way up the mountain to school. There are several more steps to reach before the project becomes more finalized.

If the Burnaby gondola for SFU continues to be supported then it might only be a few more years before we see a significant amount of progress take place on this front.

Canadian Schools Not Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels Yet For Enrolment

The rate of foreign students enrolling in Canadian schools isn’t back to the pre-pandemic levels just yet that they had been seeing in some areas. In Okanagan, the year-end deficit has increased to $3.9 million because of lower than expected enrolment of foreign students.

This decline in international enrollment is expected to have a significant financial toll on postsecondary institutions around the country and throughout the province of BC. These foreign students contribute hundreds of millions in student fees and more, and this means that schools will see millions in deficits.

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International Student Drought

It is anticipated that COVID-19 could inflict some serious long-term damage on the education sector with the significant decrease in international students enrolling. It still might be too early for some to tell how much their enrolment will be impacted. There is a lot of optimism for things to eventually return more to normal as Canada is still one of the top study destinations in the world for international students.

With the COVID-19 restrictions that are still in place surrounding travel though it isn’t going to be as easy as it was pre-pandemic for those international students to go about their schooling just the same. In each province around Canada it is estimated that these international students bring in tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions to the economy.

The pandemic brought on academic challenges, health-care concerns for international students, and travel uncertainty as well.

While the pandemic restrictions have made it more costly for some international students we shouldn’t expect these circumstances to last or the lower foreign enrolment rates to stay down forever.

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Back in 2019 it was estimated that some more than 600k international students were studying in Canada at various levels, at the end of the year in 2020 it was around 530k international students in Canada, it fell by about 17%. That drop from enrollment might be easing though and a rebound might not be far off as some postsecondary institutions have reported an uptick again in international student enrolment.

Despite the pandemic difficulties and potential tuition costs rising it looks like 2021 international student growth at some Canadian institutions is up roughly 10%.

The high quality postsecondary institutions around the country don’t have a difficult time at attracting interest from international students around the world with Canada still being one of the top learning destinations for students to go with.