Dysfunction at Champlain College went unchecked despite warnings: ministry report

The Ministry of Higher Education has released a report detailing how repeated warnings about dysfunction at Champlain College Lennoxville went largely unheeded for years. 

Champlain College Lennoxville, or CCL, is a CEGEP in Lennoxville, Que., and is overseen by Champlain Regional College, or CRC.

The report, made public this week with redactions but dated February 2025, says that the administrators of the CEGEP failed to implement recommendations from a 2022 report.

There were concerns even back then, the new report says, of "issues concerning governance, human resources and the working climate at CCL." 

The 2022 report, commissioned by the Higher Education Ministry and conducted by consulting firm MNP, made recommendations intended to improve the situation, which included "rigorously applying harassment prevention policies" and establishing a plan to improve financial management at the CEGEP, among other recommendations.  

But CCL failed to adopt most of those recommendations, and instead, financial dysfunction continued, the Higher Education Ministry report says. 

Allegations of psychological harassment by CCL's director, Nancy Beattie, went unaddressed, as did the appearance of a conflict of interest between Beattie and the co-ordinator of the college's finances, Beattie's husband, Daniel Poitras.

CBC reported many of these allegations, which had been detailed in testimony heard at Quebec's labour tribunal in 2023.

But the new ministry report included more details about allegations against Beattie and her husband. 

It says Beattie took vacation without telling anyone or naming a replacement, that she approved unworked overtime hours for someone whose name is redacted from the report, and that she would hire people on short-term contracts, which she would renew to avoid going through a formal hiring process, leading to allegations of favouritism. 

CRC's board of governors placed Beattie on paid leave following the CBC article that detailed some of the allegations against her and a new director for the CEGEP was named in October 2024, the new report says. 

The Higher Education Ministry report says that new people are improving the situation at the CEGEP, but it said further improvements would require the support of the administrators at the CRC and oversight from the ministry.

In a statement, the CRC acknowledged the report and said it would work closely with CCL personnel to improve its administration.

"Having actively participated in the investigation, the Champlain Regional College leadership team aims to reinstate a management and governance culture based on rigour, ethics and transparency," wrote CRC spokesperson Camille Duval.