A $10.7 million provincial funding injection is providing some relief to Northern College, but it won’t erase a growing budget crunch at the school. The Timmins-area college is facing a $3.7 million deficit as it deals with fewer international students and the resulting drop in revenue. The province’s funding, spread over four years, is helping fill part of that gap – but the college’s president and CEO, Mitch Dumas, told CTV News that internal efficiencies will also be needed. “Wages and benefits make up 65 to 70 per cent of our budget,” he said. “Right there alone, you can see that, yes, some staffing adjustments we’ll need… we have to right-size our college now for the number of students that we have.” Dumas said the college’s reserves will be used to carry it through the current deficit while a longer-term sustainability plan is being developed. “We are working internally on a sustainability plan, a long-term sustainability plan that will get us back in the black within the next three years,” he said. “That is our plan and, as I mentioned, we have reserves.” Meanwhile, Timmins MPP George Pirie said he is lobbying the province for additional support to connect Northern College with major regional projects, including Canada Nickel’s Crawford project. “The research has got to get done here because this is where it’s happening,” he said. “We don’t want the research to do it here and then leave. We want them to stay here.” Pirie said keeping skilled workers and researchers in the North could help create long-term opportunities for graduates and support the region’s growing industries. Dumas said the college appreciates the provincial support and sees an opportunity to train more workers locally as industries expand across the region. The college said it currently employs close to 250 full-time staff, along with almost the same number of part-time employees. Its student population is hovering around 1,400.
