Sault College facing challenging financial times

Officials at Sault College are looking for ways to deal with a $5.7 million deficit – without having to make staffing cuts.

The college’s board of directors approved the budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

President David Orazietti said the federal government’s cap on international students has essentially shut down its partnership with triOS College in Brampton.

That decision is causing the challenging financial times Sault College finds itself in.

“There are individuals in our sector that are advocating and have been advocating against public-private partnerships -- they've succeeded,” said Orazietti.

“And our association, Colleges Ontario, has not represented our interests well. And as a result, we're struggling financially.”

Orazietti wouldn’t go into details about an apparent push to disrupt post-secondary public-private partnerships. As far as the college’s budget shortfall, Orazietti said staff cuts would be a last resort.

“We'll be looking at various areas where we can reduce costs,” he said.

“We'll be looking at non-salary and labour costs first. Obviously, professional development costs, travel costs, equipment, supplies, before we take a look at our staffing. But we will have difficult choices to make.”

At Cambrian College, officials say the last fiscal year ending in March resulted in a $41 million surplus and a projected balanced budget for the current fiscal year.

“We have the most amount of international students we've ever had in our campus in Sudbury,” said Cambrian’s Manager of Communications Daniel Lessard.

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“And we also have a healthy amount of students through our partnership with Hanson in the Greater Toronto area. So the full effect of the caps are not going to be felt this fiscal year. They'll really come into play next year, but we will see a bit of an effect. It's going to be a drawdown.”

Meantime, Canadore College in North Bay recently approved a deficit of $8.3 million for the current fiscal year. However, officials there say there will be no program suspensions or cancellations.