Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips

By Connor Gunn

Lethbridge-West MLA says city could be facing hundreds of lay-offs

Feb 28, 2020 | 3:46 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge’s two post-secondary schools got a significant reduction in funding from Thursday’s provincial budget.

Mike Mahon, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lethbridge, says they are looking at a 6.6 per cent reduction in funding, or approximately $7-million. This is on top of a $3-million cut in last fall’s budget.

Lethbridge College’s President and CEO Dr. Paula Burns said their institution’s Campus Alberta Grant was reduced by 6.9 per cent, which works out to just over $3-million.

Both educational leaders say they were aware that they would be getting less funding this year than in years past, but Mahon told LNN that they were expecting it to be closer to 5 per cent.

He says the university is doing what it can to mitigate layoffs, “but I can tell you they are significant.”

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Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips claimed that the U of L cut 48 positions earlier this week and that more were on their way.

Mahon, however, said that while they have laid some people off this week already, the 48 number is “greatly inflated.”

Going forward, Mahon added that more people might lose their jobs, but the exact number has yet to be determined.

Both he and Burns committed to doing what they can to lessen the impact to students to the best of their extent.

“We do not have any specific number around layoffs,” says Burns. “We are looking at retirements and attrition before we get to layoffs, but we do anticipate, with this change, there might be some coming.”

The college and university are working on formulating their budgets now.

Burns said one of their strategies is look into ways of increasing the number of students attending Lethbridge College, which would bring in more revenue.

At this time, classes, activities, and services at the college are not being cancelled, but some might be reworked in ways she could not say.

According to Mahon, tuition will increase by an average of seven per cent per year over the next few years. Burns did not comment on a theoretical increase to student fees.