Provincial budget not perfect, but shows promise

Ryan Bromsgrove
Opinion Editor

Feb 15, 2012

After three long years of an operating funding freeze, the provincial government is finally turning its attention back to helping pay for our post-secondary institutions. While the two per cent increases for each of the next three years are not the four per cent the university was hoping for, this is definitely still relieving news.

What’s arguably most important is reverting to a three-year funding cycle, something that President Indira Samarasekera had been advocating for. The funding freeze of the last few years was something the university was informed about on an annual basis by the provincial government, which severely hampered the university’s ability to plan long-term. Frozen funding creates a budget gap when taking the consumer price index into account, and coupling in uncertainty as to what the next year would bring, the university had a lot of legitimate problems to deal with.

And with CPI rising above 2.3 per cent last year, the two per cent increases still won’t be enough to close the funding gap. Regardless, the gap should be a lot smaller than it has been, and we’re now able to plan ahead a little without fear of being abandoned year-to-year.

What this should mean in practice is a lot less bad news about staff being laid off and mandatory non-instructional fees of dubious purpose being instated. In fact, if we agree the argument for the CoSSS fee’s implementation two years ago was a measure to cover the deficit, with smaller deficits we should shortly be seeing at least a modest decrease to the CoSSS fee — contrary to what last Friday’s Board of Governors meeting hinted at when they rescinded the requirement that MNIF increases beyond CPI go to Students’ Council or referendum. In the context of the 2012 budget, that step seems especially shameless.

At the very least, given the three-year funding cycle that we’re now working with, students should be told about the future of the CoSSS fee as soon as possible. If the government can extend the courtesy of three years of notice to the university, then the university should extend the same three-year notice to students regarding their contribution to funding the budget gap. There’s no reason why we can’t be told how the CoSSS fee will pan out in the near future — and we should insist that it be either phased out or incrementally reduced to a more reasonable amount.

The university must also make sure support staff whose jobs are in peril know what will happen to them. Given this new degree of certainty, those staff members who have been living the last several months in fear for their jobs deserve to have their minds at peace — tell them whether they can stay or will be cut.

And despite the deserved commendation for the administration getting us this far, administrative salaries must not continue their increase. You don’t make it halfway through a race, declare yourself a winner and expect to reap the rewards right away. Two per cent increases are significantly lower than the needed four per cent. If we’re able to keep these increases coming — critically, if we can at least push them past CPI — then there’s justification, but not a moment before.

Samarasekera said that “quiet advocacy does work,” and she’s been proven right to an extent. We got to where are now not because of rowdy protests, but consistent lobbying. It’s not as exciting as waving signs and being confrontational, but this first scrap of good news need not be the last. This is Alison Redford’s first budget, and she’s shown she’s willing to recognize the needs of our post-secondary institutions.

Regardless of how nice it may or may not be to throw the Tories out in the next provincial election, the likelihood is that Redford’s going to be around for a while. Again, the post-secondary allocations in this budget are not perfect, but Redford is at least receptive to our concerns. Continued, consistent lobbying is the answer to the funding problem, and it’s starting to work. The future is looking a lot more promising than it had been. The university needs to build on this modest victory to ensure it passes along its security to the rest of campus.

© Gateway Student Journalism Society — All Rights Reserved