B.C.'s advanced education minister is calling for two new investigations into how a private college in B.C. could offer licences to students that don't allow them to work, in response to a CTV News investigation.
Moira Stilwell said the Shang Hai College in Burnaby would be audited by the province's private college watchdog, and that her staff would look into the rules around private colleges to make sure it couldn't happen again.
"I'm concerned about these allegations," said Stilwell. "As soon as the ministry was aware we launched an investigation."
The Shang Hai College in Burnaby already has to give back some $51,000 in tuition paid by student Stephen Harvey, who trained in acupuncture for seven years at the school with the understanding they would provide him with legal work documents.
When the actual industry watchdog told him his "Natural Health Doctor" licence wouldn't allow him to work legally and he had to go back to school, Harvey was devastated. Facing a huge debt, he had to get a job doing manual labour.
Another recipient of the licence was Kerrisdale-based "Natural Health Doctor" Grace Tseng. She offered a skin cancer patient herbal pills she said would cure cancer, for the price of up to $2,000 per month. Medical doctors doubted the pills would have any effect.
After that story B.C. Health Minister Kevin Falcon also ordered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. to investigate. The medical doctor watchdog had claimed no jurisdiction, but after the minister's intervention and the CTV News story agreed to review the case.
Stilwell said that she would examine private college regulations as well.
But NDP advanced education critic Dawn Black said the provincial government has known for years that regulations around private colleges aren't tough enough.
She pointed to the Watson Report from 2008, which called for an increase in regulation after a number of private colleges were closed for allegedly scamming English students from Asia.
"If those recommendations had been implemented, we wouldn't see this happening now," she said. "It's a failure of the Liberal government."
The Shang Hai College offered the licences from what appeared to be an Ottawa-based body called the Council of Natural Medicine College of Canada. However, court documents showed their directors were all in B.C. and their address in Ottawa was a mail drop.
The CNMCC was sued by B.C.'s acupuncture watchdog for offering rival licences. While the federal court judge ordered the CNMCC to stop offering some licences, the decision did not extend to the title "Natural Health Doctor."
That means that the college can theoretically continue offering the designation, said Jim Wright, the registrar of the Private Career Training Industry Association, which will be conducting the audit into the school.
However, if it comes out of the audit that the Shang Hai College misled students, the college could face closure, he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward and Mi-Jung Lee
