As layoffs continue and enrolment drops, Sask. Polytech faces uncertain skies

Staff at the four Saskatchewan Polytechnic campuses across the province are wondering what the future holds after a year of layoffs. Keenan Sorokan reports.

Faculty and staff at Saskatchewan Polytechnic are wondering about the long-term future of the institution after a year of layoffs and reductions due to dropping international enrolment affecting the budget.

“The feeling around campus and the feeling of our membership is a sense of still uncertainty of what the future is going to hold,” said Michelle Downton, the president of the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Faculty Association.

“And whether this is going to be the end or if we’re going to continue to see our colleagues systematically phased out of the education system at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.”

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Last week, the school announced layoff notices were given to 30 full-time and part-time staff as part of its annual review. Since last April, 181 employees have been laid off.

This is a challenging time for Sask. Polytech and these decisions are not made lightly," an update on the school’s website said.

“Sask. Polytech continues to face significant challenges in the international education environment. A rebound in international enrolment is not expected next academic year.”

In addition to layoffs, some programming has been moved to different campuses to accommodate the changing enrolment. Not captured in the data is the number of employees working on yearly contracts who were not renewed.

Downton says less faculty, less programming and less students are leading to less trust in the institution and the quality of education.

“That doesn’t give a strong sense of reliability to our community,” she said. “So I think we are going to have to do a lot of work engaging with the community to trust us again after this situation evolves.”

Downton feels the latest round of layoffs point to deeper issues at the four campuses across the province.

“During this time where we had international students at a large scale in our organization we didn’t have to worry about funding the domestic students, but now that that has been taken away, we don’t have a suitable funding structure and therefore we have million-dollar deficits that we need to recover,” Downtown said.

With Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) expected to continue its cap of international students across the country, it’s not clear there will be a way to replace the revenue from their premium-rate tuition fees.

Last November, the province announced a multi-year funding agreement with Saskatchewan post-secondary institutions, which included roughly $250 million in additional operating funding over the next four years.

The Ministry of Advanced Education allotted Sask. Poly $187 million in operating funding, an increase of eight per cent from last year, but Minister Ken Cheveldayoff says the province will support students and management as it navigates its funding shortfall.

“Yes, they have to make some difficult decisions, but that’s what competent management does,” Cheveldayoff said during question period at the Legislative Assembly Monday in response to a question from the opposition.

As part of a multi-year funding agreement announced in November, tuition increases are limited to a range of zero to three per cent annually.

Cheveldayoff says what’s happening at Sask. Poly is happening to polytechnics and technical schools across the country. On Friday, The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Alberta announced 30 staff would be laid off.

“We take no glee in these numbers,” Cheveldayoff said.

“It’s a federal government decision that is affecting our country and our economy greatly — 21,271 layoffs across the country, some 1,700 programs across the country, (and) some $6.5 billion in economic recession coming from the federal government.”

In February, a Saskatchewan delegation traveled to the Philippines and Thailand for recruitment opportunities.

But if this is the new environment, Downton is worried about how the province and the institution further respond to a major loss of one of its core revenue streams.

“We don’t have control over the IRCC decision making,” she said. “We could find ourselves in a in a precarious situation again. And so, I think that we really need to call on the Sask. government to fund domestic student enrollment properly,” she said.

According to Sask. Poly’s 2024-25 annual report released in October, student tuition made up for 28.2 per cent of revenue while government grants accounted for 66.7 per cent of revenue.

Salaries and benefits made up nearly 72 per cent of the school’s total operating expenses.