EDMONTON – The government of Alberta announced Wednesday that it will be providing $50 million in additional Campus Alberta funding to 20 schools this fiscal year.
The additional $50 million will go to 20 publicly funded Campus Alberta institutions, including the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, NAIT, SAIT and Red Deer College, according to the province’s news release.
“The Government of Alberta believes in the importance of attracting and retaining the best and brightest to our province, and ensuring that people succeed in our growing communities and economy,” said the release. “Investing in students is a top priority.”
Following the provincial budget release in March, which saw cuts to post secondary institutions, students and staff spoke out about the ramifications.
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“This – from a post-secondary institution perspective – was a very difficult budget,” said Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk. “It wasn’t a budget of choice; it was a budget of necessity – where all schools across the board have taken a seven per cent decrease.”
Lukaszuk said he called the chairs of Alberta post secondary schools on July third and made them a promise.
“The moment there is the first opportunity to go before the Treasury Board, and whenever the Treasurer tells me there is a little flexibility on the financial side, I assure you that I will be the first one before the Treasury Board asking for in-year additional spending for targeted enrolment increases,” he said on Wednesday.
In August, the University of Alberta announced it would have to make some difficult decisions to balance its budget by April 2015, including cutting costs by 15 per cent in the 2014-2015 year.
U of A President Indira Samarasekera explained the U of A was already dealing with an operational deficit of about $19 million of its own, when it learned it would be receiving roughly $56 million less from the province than it expected.
“There has never been a one-year cut of this magnitude perhaps ever in the history of the University of Alberta,” she said.
Post secondary institutions put in requests for additional support in the summer, based on enrolment numbers, the minister then had to have the requests approved by the Treasury Board.
Opposition members were not overly impressed with Wednesday’s funding announcement.
“We don’t have enough educators, we don’t have enough teaching spaces, $50 million is not enough,” said Liberal leader Raj Sherman. “It’s better than nothing, but it’s not enough.”
“They told the universities initially that they’d get an increase, then they gave $147 million cut, then every university went through the pain of cutting programs and suspending entry into other programs, and now they’re adding back $50 million? This is not good management, this is utter chaos,” said Wildrose leader Danielle Smith.
“We’ve got an advanced education minister and a government that made major mistakes, they’re facing major push-back, and a premier who’s facing a leadership review in a couple of weeks and she’s doing everything she possibly can to scramble to get a couple of wins before her members render a vote on her leadership,” Smith added.
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