BCIT to cut 82 jobs

The B.C. Institute of Technology announced Wednesday that nearly five per cent of jobs at the school would be cut to tackle a looming $12-million deficit.

The school will try to manage the cuts to affect as few people as possible, BCIT president Don Wright told The Vancouver Sun.

Wright told a full staff meeting at BCIT on Wednesday afternoon that 82 of the total 1,700 full-time positions will be eliminated at the school, and that the cuts will include management, teaching and support staff positions.

“It was a tough meeting in the sense that when you make these decisions, you know that there are faces attached to every position that you decide to eliminate,” Wright said.

“The mood in the room was not happy … but [everyone was] determined to work collectively as a team to minimize the impact on people.”

Enrolment is up at BCIT for 2009 over 2008. The potential deficit is a result of a budget forecast that includes no increase in government funding for BCIT’s fiscal year beginning April 1, 2010.

BCIT’s funding comes 50 per cent from government sources, 30 to 35 per cent from tuition fees and the remainder from contracts and sales, Wright said.

“Salary and benefits are a little more than 70 per cent of our budget. It would be pretty hard to imagine how we could eliminate a deficit without eliminating some positions,” Wright said, adding that the school is looking at ways to increase revenue and reduce non-salary costs.

The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union represents support staff and instructors at BCIT. About 30 full-time equivalent positions will be cut from BCGEU members, said Stephen Howard, communications officer for the BCGEU.

“Clearly we’re concerned about this situation for members and for students whose quality of education at BCIT will be negatively impacted by these cuts,” Howard said.

“It’s a contradiction. The economic downturn is upon us and more and more people are turning to post-secondary institutes like BCIT in greater numbers to get the training they need to try and get employed as the economy rebounds, and now key courses and services at this institution won’t be available to them.”

The proposed cuts are part of a preliminary fiscal plan, which employees, students and members of advisory committees can comment on until early January. Final decisions and notice to affected employees will happen in mid-January, Wright said.

The school will consider options such as job sharing or reduced work weeks to mitigate the cuts.

“We will look at all reasonable options to try to reduce the number of layoffs and ideally eliminate them,” Wright said.

BCIT offers certificates, diplomas and applied bachelor’s degrees in specialties ranging from computing to construction. The school has five campuses and several satellite locations, including two campuses in Vancouver and one in each of Burnaby, North Vancouver and Richmond.

tsherlock@vancouversun.com