Definitions

1  In this Act:

"agency" means the Open Learning Agency continued under section 2;

"board" means the board constituted under section 5;

"British Columbia Adult Graduation Diploma" means the diploma that may be provided to a person who is enrolled at the agency and who has met the requirements for obtaining the British Columbia Adult Graduation Diploma;

"component" means a component under section 4;

"institution" means an institution as defined in the College and Institute Act;

"planning council" means a planning council established by regulation under section 18;

"registrar" means the registrar of the agency;

"student" means a person the registrar recognizes to be enrolled and in good standing in a course or program of studies at the agency;

"student society" means an organization incorporated as a society under the Society Act whose purpose is to represent the interests of the general student body, but does not include a provincial or national student organization.

Agency continued

2  (1)  The Open Learning Agency is continued as a corporation.

(2)  The agency has the power to hold land and, subject to section 9, has the corporate powers set out in the Interpretation Act.

(3)  The Business Corporations Act does not apply to the agency.

Purposes of agency

3  The purposes of the agency are, in collaboration with universities, institutions, boards of school trustees, francophone education authorities as defined in the School Act and other agencies concerned with education, to

(a) provide an educational credit bank for students,

(b) coordinate the development of open learning education,

(c) use open learning methods to provide educational programs and services,

(d) carry out research related to open learning education, and

(e) operate one or more broadcasting undertakings devoted primarily to the field of educational broadcasting.

Components

4  (1)  The agency must establish the following components:

(a) the open university;

(b) the open college;

(c) the knowledge network.

(2)  The agency may

(a) with the approval of the minister, establish any other component it considers necessary or desirable for carrying out its purposes, and

(b) with respect to any component, establish educational objectives and guidelines.

Board

5  The agency must be managed by a board consisting of at least one and not more than 11 members appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council from among persons nominated by the minister, one of whom must be appointed chair of the board by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.

Term of office and expenses

6  (1)  A member of the board

(a) holds office for a term, not longer than 3 years, specified by the Lieutenant Governor in Council and, after that, until a successor is appointed, and

(b) may be reappointed to the board.

(2)  A member of the board may not hold office for more than 6 consecutive years.

(3)  A member of the board may be reimbursed by the agency for reasonable travelling and incidental expenses necessarily incurred by the member in performing duties under this Act.

Duties and powers of the board

7  (1)  The board must ensure the proper management of the affairs of the agency.

(2)  The board may do one or more of the following:

(a) appoint

(i)  the president of the agency who is also the chief executive officer of the agency, and

(ii)  the vice presidents of the agency;

(b) designate a vice president of the agency as chief operating officer of a component;

(c) on the recommendation of the president and chief executive officer of the agency, appoint officers and hire employees it considers necessary and determine their remuneration and duties and the conditions of their office or employment;

(d) administer the funds, grants, fees, endowments, revenues and other property received by the agency;

(e) on the recommendation of a planning council established for a component, determine the courses of instruction or programs to be offered by the component for credit towards the requirements for a degree, diploma or certificate, or determine the courses to be cancelled by the component;

(f) provide for the development, setting, conducting and marking of examinations and for the appointment of examiners;

(g) provide for the granting of degrees, diplomas or certificates by a component in its own name;

(h) appoint any committees it considers necessary;

(i) delegate any of its powers, duties, functions or obligations to a committee or a component or to a person appointed or employed by the agency and impose conditions governing the exercise of a delegated power, duty, function or obligation;

(j) pay to a municipality incorporated by or under an Act a grant in a year not exceeding the lesser of

(i)  the amount that would be payable as general municipal taxes in the year on property of the agency within the municipality if the property were not exempt from these taxes, and

(ii)  the amount specified by the minister or calculated in the manner specified by the minister;

(k) require persons to pay fees to the agency or a component in respect of registrations, courses, examinations or any other service provided by the agency or a component pursuant to this Act, and establish the amount of the fees or the method of determining the fees;

(k.1) collect fees on behalf of a student organization and remit those fees to the student organization;

(l) do all things, consistent with this Act, that it considers necessary or advisable to carry out its purposes and exercise its powers under this Act.

Personal education numbers and information

7.1  (1)  In this section:

"personal education number" means a unique identification number for a student obtained under section 170.2 of the School Act;

"student" includes a person applying to be enrolled in a course or program of studies at the agency.

(2)  The board may require a student to provide the agency with

(a) the personal information that relates directly to and is necessary for an operating program or activity of the agency, and

(b) the personal information necessary to obtain a personal education number for the student.

(3)  The board must submit the personal information collected under subsection (2) (b) to the minister responsible for the administration of the School Act to obtain a personal education number for the student.

(4)  The board may use the personal education number obtained under subsection (3) for the following purposes:

(a) carrying out its responsibilities in respect of an operating program or activity of the agency;

(b) research and statistical analysis of personal information in the possession of the board;

(c) facilitating the provision of personal information under section 14 (2).

(5)  The minister must provide to the minister responsible for the administration of the School Act the personal information about a student that is in the possession of the minister if the minister responsible for the administration of the School Act requests that information and provides the minister with a valid personal education number for that student.

Bylaws

8  The board may make bylaws regulating its proceedings and generally for the conduct and management of the business and affairs of the agency.

Student society fees

8.1  (1)  Subject to subsection (2), on annual notice from a student society, the board must direct the open university or the open college to collect student society fees and remit them to the student society if

(a) the student society has been designated by regulation, and

(b) the amount of the student society fees has been approved by a majority of the members of the student society who voted in a referendum of that student society.

(2)  If a student society referred to in subsection (1) changes student society fees, the new amount or the rate of change must be approved, before a notice is issued under subsection (1), by a majority of the members of the student society who vote in a referendum of that student society.

(3)  On annual notice from a student society, the board must direct the open university or the open college to collect fees on behalf of a provincial or national student organization and remit them to the student society or directly to the provincial or national student organization, as may be agreed by the board and the student society, if

(a) the student society has held a referendum, and

(b) the majority of the members of the student society voting in that referendum voted in favour of joining the provincial or national student organization.

(4)  The board may direct that the open university or the open college cease to collect or remit student society fees to a student society if one of the following applies:

(a) the student society fails to do one of the following in a timely manner:

(i)  make available to its members annual audited financial statements and a report on those financial statements by an auditor who meets the requirements of section 42 of the Society Act;

(ii)  inform the board in writing that the requirements set out in subparagraph (i) have been met;

(b) the student society is struck off the register in accordance with section 71 of the Society Act.

(5)  The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations designating student societies for the purposes of subsection 8.1 (1).

Investments

9  (1)  The agency may invest money that belongs to it and that is available for investment, but the investment must be only in

(a) securities in which trustees may by law invest trust funds, and

(b) other securities authorized by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.

(2)  Nothing in this section precludes the agency from holding a security donated to it or from carrying out the terms of a deed of trust respecting a security.

Limitation on liabilities and expenditures

10  (1)  Unless an estimate of the liability or expenditure has first been approved by the Minister of Finance and the minister, the agency must not incur a liability or make an expenditure in a fiscal year beyond

(a) the unexpended amount of a grant made to the agency by the government, and

(b) the estimated revenue of the agency from other sources up to the end of, and including, that fiscal year.

(2)  [Repealed 1998-6-15.]

Money for liabilities or expenditures

11  To cover a liability or expenditure approved under section 10 (1), the Minister of Finance may do one or more of the following:

(a) increase the grant for operating expenses;

(b) direct the agency to include provision for the liability or expenditure, or part of it, in its budget for the next fiscal year.

Control on expenditure for benefits

12  (1)  If the services of employees of the agency are withheld, or the agency locks out the employees, as a consequence of a dispute or other disagreement between the agency and employees of the agency

(a) the total of unexpended amounts of the grant made to the agency in the fiscal year is reduced by the value of the benefits, and

(b) the amount of the reduction calculated under paragraph (a) is a debt due and owing to the government and must be

(i)  paid by the agency to the government, or

(ii)  withheld by the minister from future grants to the agency in the fiscal year or a future fiscal year.

(2)  In subsection (1) (a) the "value of the benefits" is the value of the benefits the employees would receive for the period of the withholding or lockout in the fiscal year if the employees had worked, less the costs necessarily incurred by the agency as a consequence of the withholding or lockout and approved by the minister.

Short term borrowing

13  (1)  The agency may borrow money required to meet its liabilities or expenditures until its revenues of the current fiscal year become available.

(2)  Money borrowed under subsection (1), together with accrued interest, must be repaid out of the agency's current revenues.

Report to minister

14  (1)  As soon as practicable but within 90 days after the end of each of its fiscal years, the agency must submit its annual report to the minister in a form required by the minister.

(2)  At the request of the minister, the agency must provide the minister with reports and any other information that the minister considers necessary to carry out the minister's responsibilities in relation to the agency.

(3)  Information requested under subsection (2) may include personal information about a student.

(4)  Personal information obtained under subsection (2) or under section 170.2 of the School Act may not be used to make a decision respecting an individual student.

(5)  For the purposes of subsections (3) and (4), "student" has the same meaning as in section 7.1.

Auditor

15  The accounts of the agency must be audited at least once a year by an auditor who is

(a) appointed by the board, and

(b) authorized to be the auditor of a company under sections 205 and 206 of the Business Corporations Act.

Powers of the minister

16  The minister may

(a) make grants to the agency,

(b) require the agency or a component to establish the accounting and information systems the minister considers necessary, and

(c) with the minister responsible for the administration of the School Act, establish the requirements for obtaining the British Columbia Adult Graduation Diploma.

Limitation of liability

17  (1)  An action for damages does not lie and may not be instituted against the chancellor referred to in section 18, a member of the board, a member of a committee appointed by the board, a member of a planning council or an officer or employee of the agency for anything said or done or omitted to be said or done by him or her in the performance or intended performance of duties or the exercise of powers or for any alleged neglect or default in the performance or intended performance of duties or exercise of powers.

(2)  Subsection (1) does not provide a defence if

(a) the chancellor or the member, officer or employee has, in relation to the conduct that is the subject matter of the action, been guilty of dishonesty, gross negligence or malicious or wilful misconduct, or

(b) the cause of action is libel or slander.

(3)  Subsection (1) does not absolve the agency from vicarious liability arising out of a tort that is committed by the chancellor or by a member, officer or employee and for which the agency would have been liable had subsection (1) not been in force.

(4)  Subsections (1) to (3) apply in respect of former chancellors, members, officers and employees.

Power to make regulations

18  (1)  The minister may make regulations referred to in section 41 of the Interpretation Act.

(2)  Without limiting subsection (1), the minister may make regulations as follows:

(a) providing for the establishment of a planning council for a component;

(b) appointing the members of a planning council or providing for their appointment by the agency or for their election;

(c) conferring or imposing on a planning council any powers, duties or functions the minister considers necessary for it to carry out its responsibilities;

(d) providing for the election of the chancellor of the open university and conferring or imposing on the chancellor any powers or duties, including the power to confer degrees granted by the open university in its own name;

(e) declaring that a provision of the College and Institute Act, the University Act or the Business Corporations Act applies in respect of the agency or a component.

Winding up of agency

19  The minister may decide that the affairs of the agency are to be wound up in accordance with either section 20 or 21.

Winding up by board

20  (1)  If the minister decides that the affairs of the agency are to be wound up in accordance with this section, the minister may request that the board prepare and submit to the minister for approval a plan for winding up the affairs of the agency and the board must comply within 6 months of the request.

(2)  The minister may approve, approve with modifications the minister considers necessary or advisable or reject a plan submitted under subsection (1) and if the minister rejects the plan, the board must prepare, in accordance with the minister's directions, a new plan for approval under this subsection.

(3)  The board must wind up the agency in accordance with the plan approved under subsection (2).

(4)  Despite any provision of this Act, on and after the date the minister approves a plan under subsection (2), the powers, duties and functions of the board under this Act must be exercised or performed in a manner consistent with the powers, duties and functions of the board under the plan approved under subsection (2).

(5)  During the winding up period approved under subsection (2), the board must provide the minister with information and reports within the time and in the manner specified by the minister.

Winding up by transition administrator

21  (1)  If the minister decides that the affairs of the agency are to be wound up in accordance with this section, despite any provision of this Act, the minister may appoint a transition administrator for the purpose of winding up the affairs of the agency.

(2)  On the appointment of a transition administrator under subsection (1),

(a) the appointment of each member of the board is rescinded,

(b) the transition administrator is deemed to be the board, and

(c) the transition administrator must transfer the rights, property, assets, obligations and liabilities of the agency as directed by the minister.

Repeal of Act

22  This Act is repealed by regulation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council.