BREAKING Another suspect arrested in Toronto Pearson airport gold heist: police
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Canadian universities reported record-high surplus revenues in wake of the pandemic as schools took advantage of last year's strong stock market performance.
According to a report from Statistics Canada published Tuesday, Canadian universities raked in $7.3 billion in surplus revenues during the 2020-2021 school year, the highest since StatCan began collecting data in 2000. Revenues increased by 12.8 per cent from the previous year to $46.3 billion while expenditures dropped by 3.8 per cent to $39.0 billion.
Much of the higher revenue can be attributed to the all-time high investment income thanks to strong stock performance in 2021. Universities earned a record-high $5.4 billion from investments in 2020-2021, compared to $44.3 million the previous year and an annual average of $1.4 billion in the previous five years.
These investment gains coincided with strong stock market performance in 2021. The S&P 500 finished off the year with a 27 per cent gain compared to the start of 2021.
"Collectively, universities demonstrated resilience by rapidly transitioning to virtual learning environments and performed better than projected, despite travel restrictions affecting international students, campus services being closed, and residences operating at lower capacity," the StatCan report said.
The record-high revenues occurred despite the fact that provincial funding has been on the decline over the last few years. Provincial funding made up 32.5 per cent of total university revenue in 2020-2021 compared to 36.7 per cent in the previous year.
In Quebec and N.L., provincial funding made up half of university revenue. But in Ontario, provincial funding only accounted for 21.4 per cent and has been declining from its peak of 42.1 per cent in 2008-2009.
On the other hand, rising tuition revenue has been able to make up for the shortfalls in provincial funding. Tuition revenue accounts for 28.8 per cent of total revenue in 2020-2021, compared to 21.5 per cent 10 years ago, especially as international tuition has continued to skyrocket.
In most provinces, international tuition is deregulated, meaning schools can charge foreign students as much as they'd like.
In 2020-2021, international undergraduate tuition rose 7.1 per cent to $32,019, compared to just $6,580 for domestic students. Some programs, such as engineering at the University of Toronto, exceeded $60,000 for international students -- and that's not including the ancillary fees.
And while provincial support has declined, support from the federal government rose that year, thanks to pandemic grant programs totalling $5.3 billion. Federal funding accounted for 11.4 per cent of university revenue, compared to 10.3 per cent the previous year.
Because of a lack of on-campus activities amid COVID-19 restrictions, universities also lost $1.5 billion or nearly half of the revenue from the sale and services of products, such as in cafeterias, gyms and residences.
Universities also reported a 3.8 per cent drop in expenditures, representing the largest decrease since StatCan began data collection. The largest drop was in Alberta, where universities cut expenditures by 10.8 per cent thanks to belt-tightening measures in response to cuts in provincial funding.
In the upcoming year, StatCan says it's unlikely that universities will report similarly high revenue, given the drop in the stock market since the beginning of this year. However, as on-campus activities continue to resume, StatCan says this may yield increases in revenue from tuition fees and ancillary services.
"The repercussions of the pandemic will continue to be felt in the year 2021/2022, and it might take years for universities to return to the pre-pandemic growth levels," the report said.
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Hailey and Justin Bieber are going to be parents. The couple announced the news on Thursday on Instagram, both sharing a video that showcases Hailey Bieber's growing belly.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would not legislate on, nor use the notwithstanding clause, on abortion, his office says, as anti-abortion protesters gather on Parliament Hill.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
Miss Teen USA resigned Wednesday, sending further shock waves through the pageant community just days after Miss USA said she would relinquish her crown.
For some immigrants, their dreams of permanently settling in Canada have taken an unexpected twist.
A video circulating on social media of a young girl being hit by a bike has some calling for better safety and more caution when designing bike lanes in the city. The video shows a four-year-old girl crossing Jeanne-Mance Street in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood to get on a school bus stopped on the opposite side of the street
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.