Episode #79: No ECE Shortage, No Waitlists: What One Province Got Right with Cindy Lidster
Canada's healthcare workforce isn't just stretched — it's cracking. And the institutions best positioned to fix it are being overlooked, undersupported, and in some cases, actively undercut by operators running so-called "colleges" that are little more than nursing homes with a logo.
In this episode of the EdUp Canada podcast, host Michael Sangster sits down with Cindy Lidster — a former nursing professor at the University of New Brunswick turned career college founder and president of the New Brunswick Association of Private Colleges and Universities. Cindy saw two things coming in 2014 that nobody wanted to believe: that the future of frontline nursing would be delivered primarily by personal support workers and healthcare aides, and that the future of education delivery was going online. She built her college around both predictions before most institutions had even started the conversation. When the pandemic hit, she was ready.
In this episode, you'll hear what it actually looks like to run a high-standards career college in a province that's quietly building one of the most collaborative relationships between private colleges and government in the country. You'll hear about two women in their early twenties who gave up their home in Scarborough, quit their jobs, and moved to New Brunswick — all to enroll in a PSW program they hoped would lead to permanent residency and a career in care. Their placement partners want to hire them full-time. Cindy is quietly waiting to see how it ends.
You'll also hear about a sector working hard to clean its own house: the site visits that revealed "colleges" operating out of care homes, the association standards being built to mean something beyond a government checkbox, and the LPN training waitlists that are already so long Cindy is drafting a proposal for a third provider in the province. If you've ever wondered whether skills-based training can genuinely change someone's life — or what it looks like when a province actually gets career college policy right — this episode is a masterclass.
[00:02:00] — Cindy saw the future of nursing and online education coming in 2014, built her college around both predictions, and was fully ready when the pandemic proved her right.
[00:05:00] — She can teach the science, the skills, and the math — but the one thing she can't teach, and keeps trying hardest to, is how to genuinely care for another person.
[00:06:00] — Cindy has done the site visits, and some of the institutions calling themselves career colleges in New Brunswick are, in her words, nursing homes with a logo.
[00:09:00] — Two best friends left Scarborough, gave up their jobs and their home, and moved to New Brunswick to enroll in a PSW program — and their practicum partners want to hire them full-time.
[00:11:00] — ACAHS has no fixed cohorts, pre-recorded lectures, online testing, and instructors who hand out their cell numbers — because education should fit around life, not the other way around.
[00:13:00] — New Brunswick's LPN waitlists are already too long to clear, one province solved its ECE shortage simply by never restricting career college training, and Cindy is already writing the proposal for a third LPN provider.
[00:15:00] — The skill Cindy credits most for everything she's built is the one she spent decades talking herself out of: trusting what she sees when nobody else is asking the question.
[00:21:00] — Cindy's closing message on why career college graduates belong in care settings is really about one thing: the people they'll be caring for are the most vulnerable, and they deserve someone who is genuinely prepared.