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By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

'under-investment in post-secondary'

Budget 2022 cuts Red Deer Polytechnic’s operating grant by 6.4%, or $2.7 million

Mar 3, 2022 | 10:31 AM

Red Deer Polytechnic will see its portion of the Campus Alberta Grant (CAG) drop by $2.7 million this year, or 6.4 per cent.

This comes as part of last week’s unveiling of Budget 2022 by Premier Jason Kenney, in which the province allotted about $5.44 billion for post-secondary. That’s currently slated to increase in 2023/24 to $5.52 billion, and then to $5.62 billion in 2024/25. Last year’s total was $5.04 billion, down from $5.13 in 2020/21.

An advocacy document from the Alberta Students’ Executive Council (ASEC), released last November, asks the government to provide $5.55 billion in operating funding this year, and $5.77 billion next year. The organization says these numbers are needed due to an anticipated spike in enrollment from a large high school cohort, and an influx of mature students coming back to re-skill post-COVID.

The CAG is delivered to publicly-funded institutions each year for the purpose of operating funds to support delivery of approved credit programs and apprenticeship seats. Institutions use the dollars as they see fit.

Jim Brinkhurst, Interim President at Red Deer Polytechnic, wouldn’t comment on specifics, but says the institution is optimistic as it reviews the budget’s impacts.

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“With a growing and diverse program mix, we believe we are well-positioned to access new funding announced for post-secondary institutions. This will help us increase access to post-secondary education, as we continue to provide high-quality applied learning opportunities for our students and support the needs of industry and our communities,” says Brinkhurst.

“As per our normal practices and timelines, we are in the planning stages for Red Deer Polytechnic’s 2022/23 budget. No decisions have been made at this time. We will inform our students, employees and community of our future budget plans in the coming months.”

That budget is expected to come down in June.

Savannah Snow, president of the Students’ Association of RDP, says cutting the Campus Alberta Grant is unfortunate.

“With the cuts to that grant, institutions have not been given enough time to adjust to decreased funding, which results in higher tuition rates. They need to stop cutting that grant, point blank,” Snow says.

“RDP is making the best of a bad situation, to be honest. With the grant cuts, I understand the fiscal pressure that puts on the institution, and it means they have to make up money somewhere, but it sucks that it gets deferred onto students. Hopefully the UCP will, in the future, decide to stop cutting that grant so institutions can stabilize their revenue.”

rdnewsNOW had asked Brinkhurst to comment specifically on tuition, which the opposition NDP points out is projected to fuel the budget by $150 million more than last year.

The UCP says this is a result of The MacKinnon Panel recommendation which says post-secondary institutions should explore broader revenue streams to reduce reliance on government.

“The UCP are continuing to gut Alberta post-secondary schools and leave Alberta’s students behind,” says NDP Critic for Advanced Education David Eggen. “Since taking office we have seen deep, generational cuts from this government to the tune of $690 million.”

Snow, who agrees that the government is under-investing in post-secondary, explains that when the UCP capped tuition increases at a seven per cent annual average over the last three years, RDP took full advantage of that. This meant some programs saw smaller or bigger increases, averaging out to seven per cent, but an overall compounded increase of 21 per cent over the last three years.

Snow and her team at the SA are required to be consulted by the institution before changes to tuition fees are made, with her hope this year being that the pain will stop.

“We’ve already seen exceptional increases, which is not ideal. The cost of living is going up, and as the economy improves, we’ll see a higher rate of inflation,” says Snow, a business administration student. “We’re seeing gas prices go up, and groceries cost more, so it does make me worried for the future. With the UCP’s movement, or lack thereof, on the personal income tax, there’s a possibility I won’t make as much if they don’t reverse it.”

Snow isn’t a student who has the ability to not take out student loans, meaning she could be shouldering the burden of tuition for many years to come, she says.

If there’s anything positive about the budget, says Snow, it’s an increase to scholarships.

“There’s quite a big bucket of funding for increasing or replenishing existing scholarships, which is awesome. There are also some new scholarships, and with the polytechnic having such a large focus on things like trades and apprenticeships, that’s going to be super beneficial for us as we’ll be able to dip quite a bit into that funding.”

Snow, as a member of ASEC, is also advocating for increased funding for both international students, and for the Post-Secondary Student Support Program (SPPPS), a stream of federal funding which aims to improve the socio-economic outcomes for Indigenous students at the post-secondary level.

“I’m happy with the work the UCP has done to increase student support,” she adds. “But there’s more work to be done in terms of what ASEC thinks should be the projected education fund going forward.”