Edmonton – The province has cancelled a controversial financial review of the University of Alberta.
According to Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, the university’s approach to the budget crisis has changed. He says since the financial review was ordered in late August, the university has chosen to do things differently.
“I’m satisfied that the university has committed to do what I and we felt needs to be done, and they’ll do this on their own. So there’s no need to expend taxpayer’s dollars for third parties if we have achieved the goal that ultimately we wanted to achieve,” says Lukaszuk.
The decision was made in late September, one month after the Advanced Education Minister ordered the review.
The provincial government cut the university’s budget for this year by more than $40 million. Including the institution’s structural deficit, the university is $84 million in the red.
The U of A originally wanted to balance the books over three years. The province wanted it done by next year and directed the review to help the university find places to cut.
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“I am continuously working directly with the chair and president. My department is continuously working with the administration of the university. So we have a very good handle on what is and isn’t going on,” says Lukaszuk.
NDP Advanced Education critic Rachel Notley says she thinks the review “was always a bit of smoke and mirrors.”
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“The fact of the matter is either the minister didn’t know what he was talking about when he initially introduced that he was going to do it, thus he had to quietly back away; alternatively, it was always just meant as a tool..to bully and threaten the U of A to speed up the pace of their cuts. Either way, it doesn’t look good on the government.”
The university has outlined a plan to balance its budget by 2015. It’s finalizing voluntary severance packages. The president has outlined a plan to cut seven per cent in additional core academic funding this year and eight per cent more from core support.
Notley is concerned about the pace of the cuts.
“The Minister is clamouring around like a bull in a china shop trying to impose Draconian cuts onto an important institution in this province without any regard to the long-term outcome of the speed of those cuts,” she says.
Lukaszuk maintains that the “difficult decisions” the university is making are important “to make this university a strong partner in Campus Alberta as they need to be and as they will be.”
According to Lukaszuk, the province didn’t spend any money on the cancelled financial review. He says there were no contracts signed before the decision was made to cancel the review.
With files from Fletcher Kent
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