Sask. Polytech lays off 14, with more cuts likely to come

WATCH: Saskatchewan Polytechnic has issued layoff notices as the trade and technical school faces a financial shortfall due to a decline in international studen

Saskatchewan Polytechnic has issued layoff notices as the trade and technical school faces a financial shortfall due to a decline in international student enrolment.

In an email to staff on Wednesday, Sask. Polytech President Larry Rosia said the school faced a “substantial revenue shortfall for the 2025-26 academic year” that would affect programs and employees.

“Over the past few weeks, layoff notices have been issued to 14 out-of-scope employees and eight vacant out-of-scope positions will not be filled,” Rosia said in the internal email obtained by CTV News.

The layoffs represent a 10 per cent reduction in its out-of-scope workforce, Rosia says.

Alongside the layoffs, a number of departments and faculties are being dissolved or merged.

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The faculty of business and management and the faculty of digital innovation, arts and sciences are being consolidated under a single dean, according to the internal email. Two offices working under Provost Has Malik have been dissolved, Rosia said.

“These are difficult decisions to make as they impact our colleagues’ employment. We are deeply grateful for the contributions and dedication of those affected. Their work has been valued and appreciated by all of us at Sask. Polytech,” said Rosia.

Rosia has faced criticism in the past from the SGEU, which represents non-academic staff at the post-secondary institution.

In December 2024, the union expressed concerns over a 68 per cent growth in the number of management positions under his leadership, while the rest of the workforce grew by only three per cent.

The union accused Rosia — who made a total $563,764 in 2024, according to public disclosures — of laying off in-scope employees to help cover the cost of new management positions.

Now, as a federal two-year cap on the number of internation student study permits has chewed into enrolment and the school’s cash cow has been put out to pasture, it appears even managers are on the butcher’s block.

These layoffs mirror similar cost-cutting measures at post-secondary schools across the country as they contend with deficits created by the loss of international students, who pay significantly higher tuition fees.

Sask. Polytech also cited the decline in international student enrolment earlier this year when it laid off 27 staff members.

Last month, Canada’s auditor general announced plans to probe the international student program.

Critics argue Canada’s rapid increase in international student admissions over recent years drove up youth unemployment and worsened the housing crisis.

In a statement to CTV News on Thursday, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the cap on study permits is intended to “help align immigration planning with community capacity.”

There were nearly 1 million international students in Canada at the end of 2024, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE).

The country saw a four per cent decline in students from abroad by the end of 2024, “a sharp contrast to the 29 per cent growth from 2022 to 2023,” CBIE said.

Here at Sask. Polytech, it appears more cuts are coming as the school navigates the loss in revenue.

Rosia warns that “looking ahead, more difficult decisions will be necessary.”

In a news release Thursday morning, the provincial NDP and the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Faculty Association (SPFA) said the school has come to rely on high-paying international students to compensate for insufficient provincial operating grants.

“The Sask. Party should have never starved our post-secondary schools of funding,” NDP MLA Tajinder Grewal said.

“We should never have been in this position in the first place.”

CTV News has reached out to the province for comment and is waiting for a response.

-With Canadian Press files