Letters to the Editor Centres of excellence bandwagon

I have noted with interest your editorial and recent correspondence which has appeared about “Centres of Excellence” in The Northern Miner. Frankly, a bandwagon approach is being taken about the centres, particularly the centre of excellence for surface mining. If you think adding a professor to either or both of the universities (British Columbia and Alberta) will bring excellence, think again, sir.

Nearly two years ago you had a news item in The Northern Miner that the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) was formulating a centre of excellence. What is wrong with that? In fact this is how it should be. CANMET, as a federal government agency, has a national mandate. It has nine Ph.D’s working at the Surface Mining Laboratory at Devon, Alta. The Coal Mining Research company is also situated in the same building and is complementing the work done by CANMET.

As an individual keeping in close contact with national and international research, I would concede that CANMET’s work could be more practical and result-oriented. This will come about in time as the scientists and management gain industry experience. Once you have added industry experience to what is available at Devon you have a first class Centre of Research. U. A. Wala Calgary, Alta.