REGINA – Elected officials on both sides of the aisle voiced dismay at the Legislature this week on news that Sask Polytechnic has announced further jobs cuts.
Sask Polytechnic has announced a further 30 layoffs this week, including 18 faculty, nine professional services employees and three out of scope. That is on top of the 150 employees laid off over the past year.
The cuts have drawn further fire from the NDP, who once again have accused the Sask Party of cutting funding for advanced education. They also were again critical of the closure of campus bookstores and the suspension of the Health Information Management Program.
“We can’t have a strong Saskatchewan without a strong Sask Poly,” said Tajinder Grewal, critic for Advanced Education. “After 20 years in power, the Sask. Party has no plan to keep our children here and grow our economy. This government has starved our post-secondary schools of funding for years and made them reliant on international student tuition."
Speaking to reporters at the legislature Thursday, Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff expressed disappointment over the latest round of layoffs, emphasizing again that the layoffs were a Sask Polytechnic decision.
"We're very very disappointed anytime that we have layoffs, I've personally experienced them in my family and I'm certainly, you know, with those that are affected by it," said Cheveldayoff.
But Cheveldayoff noted that in Saskatchewan, they have "fine institutions at the advanced education level" and said those were among the most well-funded institutions in the country.
As for the government's response, the minister pointed to the eight per cent lift this year in funding with $187 million, so "we're doing all that we can." He adds the headwinds they are facing is because of the federal government, pointing to their cutbacks to international students.
Cheveldayoff also again noted the situation in Saskatchewan is not as dire as other provinces.
"150 (job losses) in total this year is something that… we're concerned about, but when you put it in light of the 20,000 layoffs that happened across Canada and the 1700 programs that were cancelled, it shows that we're still in good stead here in Saskatchewan."
As for what lobbying could be done to sway the Feds on the issue, Cheveldayoff said they have written letters and he had gone to the federal-provincial-territorial meeting last year. He said would be going to the same meeting this year, "talking to my colleagues across the country and lobbying the federal government."
"We all acknowledge that the previous federal government opened the floodgates and it was unsustainable, but now they've shut them and there has to be a happy medium in in the middle there sometime."
He adds that Saskatchewan's post secondary institutions only had a modest amount of international students.
"We value international students and they contribute in class, they contribute to the economy of Saskatchewan as well, so we'll work our way through this, but this is a very difficult decision that Dr. Rosia and the Sask Poly administration and board had to make."
