New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) is making changes to its workforce, one the school says is needed to ensure the institutions long-term sustainability. “As part of our commitment to delivering high-quality education and workforce development across New Brunswick, NBCC is making strategic adjustments to programs, staffing, and structure,” reads a news release from the college. “These changes are necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the college while continuing to meet the needs of the students, industry partners, and communities we serve in an evolving post-secondary landscape.” The decision will result in 66 positions being cut, but NBCC president and CEO Mary Butler says only eight employees were given actual notices. The other 58 eliminated positions were either a result of a recent retirement, an already vacant position, or employees that had signed a term contract which won’t be renewed. The 66 cut jobs equate to about six per cent of the institution’s workforce. There are also several programs that will no longer be offered on a permanent or temporary basis due to the enrollment drop off caused by the international student cap. Impacted courses include some business and administrative programs. Cuts to school programming is the last thing NBCC students want to hear about. “I don’t think that’s fair because we don’t have a lot of schooling around here as it is,” says Cassie Pitman about the staff and program cuts. “The staff are very important for all us students over here,” echoes fellow student Nigel Munda. “It’s such a bummer that all the staff are gone. Most of the staff are going and all our courses, most of our courses are getting removed, so that’s just such a disappointment to hear about.” Butler says the decision was not made lightly and have been in the works over the last two years. With a 14.5 per cent drop decline in international enrollment last year, Butler knew adjustments would have to be made. “The bigger story here is the impact on our employers and the businesses in this province that aren’t going to have the graduates that they were expecting with the skills they need to remain competitive and grow their business,” says Butler. “That’s what I’m really most afraid of, is that while we’re growing our domestic population, which we’ve grown it by over nine per cent over the last five years, that’s not enough to make up for the vacuum that’s being left by the reductions in immigration.” Butler says NBCC will be down around 1,200 international students from where the school was two years ago when school starts up in September. She says less international students will have an impact that reaches far beyond campus. “It means fewer workers for the New Brunswick labor market,” she says. “We already know that we’re going to be short of 133,000 [labour workers] that we need. We really need to rally as a province and say if that federal [student] cap isn’t going to change, what are we going to do differently?” With the province seeing an aging population, Butler says upwards of 40 per cent of the labour gaps needed to supply the market will have to be filled by workers who come from outside of New Brunswick. Rather than focus on the void left by less international students, Butler says colleges nationwide who find themselves in similar spots should put their efforts towards educating young people on the benefits of college. “Post-secondary institutions, colleges in particular, are here to serve the labor market needs of the province,” Butler says. “So, if we are the labor supply, then we need to focus on what is the impact of that labor supply.” Butler doesn’t believe the current model is sustainable and wants to look at what changes can be made to ensure NBCC is playing its part in feeding a health labour supply so the province can continue to grow. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
