Universities seek help with $1 billion in COVID costs
Schools were able to find savings, but are still short $500 million
Ontario universities have been hit with $1 billion in costs and lost revenue because of COVID-19 and are now making a public appeal to the province for help.
The Council of Ontario Universities, in a statement posted Friday on its website, says while institutions were able to find $500 million in one-time savings, they are still short the remaining $500 million and there is an “urgent need for sectorwide cost recovery.”
COVID has had “a significant impact on the sector, which is why we are looking for shortterm relief,” said Steve Orsini, the council’s president and CEO. “We want to work with the government over long-term sustainability, (which) would also be a goal,” he added. “Our focus now is getting COVID-19 relief to deal with the net impact on the sector so that we can continue to invest in students and communities and really help to support Ontario’s economic recovery.”
He said universities have “been working hard to deal with the impact of COVID-19 and have done remarkably well — from reducing a sector-wide $1 billion impact to $500 million. They went through a lot to get it down to half, and so what we are saying now to the government is, given the important rule that universities play in supporting students, local communities and economic recovery, we are looking for sectorwide support.”
Post-secondary institutions have struggled during the pandemic, closing residences or cutting the number of students allowed in to help curb COVID — but that has also cut into revenues. They’ve also incurred costs to keep campuses safe for the few classes and labs that are running, and in providing personal protective equipment to staff and students as needed.
The first casualty has been Laurentian University in Sudbury, which recently appealed to the courts for creditor protection, after its financial situation became so dire that it didn’t even have enough funds to cover its payroll costs beyond a month. While its financial woes have been mounting for several years, one expert said COVID-19 was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Orsini did not want to comment on the Laurentian situation, but said “all universities have had significant impacts … whether they have a small or large student body, universities had costs that reflected the size and complexity of their organization.”
While he said schools may have seen some savings because of COVID-19, the costs of converting all programming online and supporting technology has been substantial and more than offset them.
He also said universities’ have had to manage a drop in funds after a tuition decrease in 2019 and a two-year freeze implemented by the Ford government after taking office.
Meanwhile, students — and a majority of Ontarians — have told pollsters they believe a tuition break is in order given online learning is not the full campus experience.
About two-thirds of operating revenue for universities comes from provincial grants and domestic tuition, and they’ve relied on international student tuition to help fill the gap.
Colleges and Universities Minister Ross Romano has said the province will support schools that are struggling because of COVID.
But in the legislature Wednesday, Sudbury MPP Jamie West asked why no help had been provided to Laurentian.
“Experts are concerned that this (creditor protection) process will recommend Laurentian cut one-third of all programs, one-third of faculty and staff,” he said.
In reply, Romano’s parliamentary assistant MPP David Piccini said “we’ll work collaboratively with anyone,” and noted that Laurentian receives about $80 million a year in operating grants, plus a number of special grants. Romano has said while universities are autonomous, they could fall under greater financial scrutiny in light of what’s happened at Laurentian. He added that the government provided $50 million to colleges and universities to boost online learning.