Budget cuts have Quebec universities reeling
Institutions to lose $132 million in funding
Add McGill University to the list of financially strapped universities that are reeling from drastic cuts suddenly being imposed on the sector by the Parti Québécois government.
In eight months’ time, universities have gone from expecting a tuition increase this fall, to seeing it slashed and then revoked entirely — and now to having their budgets cut.
In a letter to the McGill community that takes the PQ government to task, principal and vice-chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum called the government decision to impose a $124-million cut for the last four months of fiscal 2012-13 “unprecedented” and said the university is not in a position to accept the cuts.
“Now, despite unveiling a commitment to a multi-year university financing plan in its November budget, we hear that we are being requested to make massive cuts notwithstanding that salaries have been agreed upon, contractual arrangements in place, pension commitments undertaken, research and teaching infrastructure has to be maintained, and the commitments to our students who need services and financial aid remain,” she said in the letter.
“The short-sighted cuts requested and announced this week threaten especially the missions of Quebec’s research and graduate-student-intensive universities. They also threaten the very future of Quebec.”
She described how the Quebec government is giving with one hand and taking away with the other — saying a letter she received Thursday night from higher education minister Pierre Duchesne promised the universities would receive compensation of $32 million for the cancellation of tuition increases, but didn’t specify when.
At the same time, it confirmed that operating grants to Quebec’s universities will be cut by $124 million (about five per cent).
“Incredibly, the government is expecting universities to realize those savings between now and April 30, 2013,” Munroe-Blum said. “In reality, with two-thirds of the year already gone, that represents about a 15 per cent cut — with no margin of manoeuvre to plan or to use economies of scale.”
On Thursday, the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities (CREPUQ) said the cuts put universities in a very precarious position, and denied Duchesne’s contention that universities already knew from the former Liberal government that these targets had to be reached. MunroeBlum supported that assertion, saying: “At no time previously, contrary to messages in the press, were Quebec’s university leaders informed of impending cuts to our operating grants.”
Still, CREPUQ has decided to participate in the ongoing Summit on Higher Education that has been organized by the PQ government to address serious issues in the university sector, saying it still wants to give its opinion on important matters.
For McGill, Munroe-Blum said the cut will be in the range of $17 million to $21 million — coming on top of an estimated $7-million deficit that was budgeted for 201213.
“Were the board to decide to absorb the cuts requested … McGill’s deficit for 2012-13 could well rise above $30 million,” she said.
However, like CREPUQ, which represents the province’s 19 universities, McGill doesn’t seem to know exactly what to do. All the universities have pledged to consult their communities to try to determine the best course of action.
Noting that McGill had an annual economic impact of $5.2 billion on the Quebec economy in 2008, MunroeBlum expressed her frustration with the situation:
“Only a few months ago, we were planning where best to invest necessary new resources from a reasonable increase in tuition against our priorities,” she said. “Now we are being asked to manage the financial decline of the educational system.”