By Sheldon Spackman

tough decisions ahead

RDC funding cut 7.4% by provincial budget

Mar 2, 2020 | 4:58 PM

Red Deer College is losing a big chunk of funding following the latest provincial budget.

Dr. Peter Nunoda, RDC President, says the budget tabled Thursday includes a 7.4 per cent reduction to their Campus Alberta Operating Grant – a loss of $3.6 million.

“It is significantly more than we anticipated in our budget planning process,” Nunoda admits. “We had designed a scenario that was sitting around a three per cent reduction, so this is 4.4 (per cent) more.”

The previous provincial budget tabled last October included a cut of 2.4 per cent ($1.2 million).

Nunoda says the funding cuts means RDC now has to revisit its budget planning process. That work will start Tuesday as the college needs to have its budget for the next year submitted to the province in early April.

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“We have to look at all of the means at our disposal to balance the budget because we cannot post a deficit here, we have to be balanced,” he explains. “We will look at the external revenue-generating opportunities, including international education. We’ll look at reducing our expenses across the college, and we will very likely be pursuing the opportunity available for tuition increases under the new tuition framework.”

The new tuition framework allows post-secondary institutions in Alberta to hike tuition by up to seven per cent per year (on average) over three years up to 21 per cent.

“We will be discussing tuition with our students association over the next couple of days. Then we have to submit any proposal for a tuition increase to the (Advanced Education) ministry for approval,” Nunoda said, adding they would try to increase the number of available scholarships and bursaries to help counter any tuition hikes.

Nunoda says job cuts at RDC will be treated as a “last resort” and that they would also prefer not to cut any of the programming offered at RDC if possible.

“We would prefer to try to find ways to generate more revenue to balance the books,” he says.

On Friday, SAIT in Calgary announced 230 layoffs, nearly 10 per cent of its total staff, while other post-secondary institutions across the province are also facing the possibility of job cuts in the wake of provincial grant funding cuts.

“The mass layoffs at SAIT are the tip of the iceberg I fear,” NDP Advanced Education Critic David Eggen said Friday.

Nunoda says his number one priority is to ensure the viability of Red Deer College now and long after it becomes Red Deer University.

“I am not going to be the president that locks the doors and shuts out the lights here. Red Deer College and Red Deer University will continue to serve the people of central Alberta.”