URFA responds to government's 2021-22 budget

REGI­NA, Sask. — This week, the Gov­ern­ment of Saskatchewan pre­sent­ed its bud­get for the 2021 – 22 fis­cal year. The bud­get con­tains a four-year com­mit­ment to main­tain the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regina’s cur­rent base oper­at­ing fund­ing. Non-base fund­ing for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na includes close to $5.5 mil­lion dol­lars in years one and two of the next four years for COVID-19 recov­ery and to sup­port long-term finan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty projects. Over­all, the 2021 – 22 bud­get for Cam­pi­on Col­lege, First Nations Uni­ver­si­ty of Cana­da, Luther Col­lege and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na is $133,867,650.

Dur­ing Inter­im Pres­i­dent and Vice-Chan­cel­lor Dr. Thomas Chase’s remarks on April 6, 2021 about the provin­cial bud­get, he stat­ed that no increase in base fund­ing in the next four years will present chal­lenges ​“such as man­ag­ing salary increas­es, util­i­ty hikes and oth­er infla­tion­ary pres­sures.” URFA under­stands that the Uni­ver­si­ty has faced, and will con­tin­ue to face, uncer­tain­ties in oper­a­tions dur­ing the remain­der of the pan­dem­ic and in the post-pan­dem­ic peri­od. As the Uni­ver­si­ty con­tin­ues bud­get dis­cus­sions, URFA encour­ages the Uni­ver­si­ty to keep the impacts of any bud­getary deci­sions on URFA mem­bers and stu­dents at the fore­front. URFA mem­bers and stu­dents are crit­i­cal to the University’s suc­cess and should not have to face cuts or tuition increases.

The past year has been try­ing. URFA mem­bers have ral­lied to sup­port each oth­er and stu­dents in adapt­ing to the innu­mer­able, unfore­seen chal­lenges result­ing from COVID-19 that have upend­ed how all of us live, work and study. In response to the Gov­ern­ment of Saskatchewan’s 2021 – 22 bud­get, URFA asks that: 

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na look at all finan­cial options that do not adverse­ly impact URFA mem­bers or students. 

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na draw on the cre­ativ­i­ty and inno­va­tion of URFA mem­bers to imple­ment the non-base fund­ing des­ig­nat­ed for COVID-19 recov­ery and finan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty projects. 

The Gov­ern­ment of Saskatchewan com­mit to off­set any unfore­seen costs the Uni­ver­si­ty may incur as a result of the ongo­ing and unknown impacts of COVID-19.

URFA mem­bers and stu­dents make sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the University’s abil­i­ty to lead the way for­ward to a strong and vibrant post-pan­dem­ic Saskatchewan. Uni­ver­si­ty invest­ments in fac­ul­ty and staff, and a provin­cial gov­ern­ment com­mit­ment to sus­tained post-sec­ondary edu­ca­tion fund­ing are crit­i­cal to ensur­ing the con­tin­ued envi­ron­ment of inno­va­tion and idea-gen­er­a­tion that is cur­rent­ly found at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regina.

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