Profs decry ‘catastrophic’ cuts proposed by NB government 

The target for budgetary reductions is $35-$50M for the purpose of this exercise.

The province’s priority sectors remain health, skilled trades and education (largely early childhood and k-12).

In addition, meeting the needs of the labour market remain front and centre, as well as increasing productivity, and the important role of research and innovation.

Here is the list of ideas I shared with you today:

1. What if, there was no grant to institutions, only $$ for students? UNB [University of New Brunswick] has mentioned this before.

2. What if, we had a cap on the GNB [Government of New Brunswick] payment of property tax for universities and future increases were paid by institutions?

3. Could we help devest of expensive assets sooner? UM [Université de Moncton] pool/rink project? UNB pool?

4. What if, municipalities contributed to recreational facilities.

5. Are there policy levers or barriers that GNB could influence?

a. No more MPHEC [Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission] do your own QA [quality assurance]?

b. Change legislation to remove barriers/structure issues?

c. Limit student aid to in-province students?

d. Remove long standing barriers?

6. What if there were infrastructure partnerships b/t high schools, colleges and universities? Integrated into your campus to reduce infrastructure costs?

7. Mergers and partnerships?

a. STU [St. Thomas University]-UNB? Could we move 1700 STU students across the street and repurpose STU?

b. CCNB [Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick] & UMoncton additional collaborations? Move Dieppe campus to Moncton campus?

c. NBCCD [New Brunswick Community College Dieppe] & NBCC [New Brunswick Community College]

d. NBCCD & UNB or STU

e. MCFT [Maritime College of Forestry Technology] & UNB F [University of New Brunswick Fredericton] & UMoncton Edmundston for forestry efficiency

8. There are 20+ campuses in NB for 860,000 people. Historically low enrollment. Do we need them all?

9. Do we need 11 college campuses?

10. What if we only had two public universities in NB? UMoncton and UNB

11. What if grants were based on retention of graduates?

12. No grant for MtA [Mount Allison University](40% retention) but we provided a “transition trust fund” to become an independent Canadian Premiere University?

13. What if community colleges delivered degrees that don’t fit with universities? Universities focused on other things?

14. What if UMoncton expanded outside NB? Opportunity or a cost?

15. What if some of your infrastructure was repurposed for schools, nursing homes, affordable housing, health clinics, private sector development, etc.?

16. Reduce the grant by 10% and didn’t raise tuition?

But we need YOUR ideas, concepts, not fully flushed, but what are you willing to consider and put on the table for future discussion, ideas that we can take to Cabinet in the coming weeks, for further discussion and direction.

I realize the timeline is very short, I look forward to our meeting next Wednesday, February 18th in Moncton, invitation with details will be sent, feel free to invite members of your teams as you see fit.

My goal is to bring your input/ideas to Cabinet the week of February 23, in advance of the March 17 budget speech.

I’ve also included a few presentations to help inform your ideas.

Thank you all again for your consideration.