Post-secondary institutions across Alberta have seen budget cuts in the recent provincial budget, but the effect on agricultural programs remains to be seen.
According to the Ministry of Enterprise and Advanced Education, the operation support funding provided by the government to post-secondary schools throughout Alberta is being decreased by $147 million in comparison to last year’s budget.
The Alberta government provides approval for programs starting and closing. Suzana Krpan, a spokesperson for the ministry, said the minister has yet to receive any requests for program suspensions.
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At Olds College, any impact the cuts might have on the agricultural programs there hasn’t been assessed yet.
“They’re being reviewed currently,” said Dean Turnquist, manager of corporate communications. He said the budget year goes to the end of June and decisions will be made later in May. He noted all programs are reviewed every year.
At Lethbridge College, the fate of the agricultural technology program hasn’t been determined. Gwen Wirth, communications specialist for the college, said there haven’t been any decisions about budget cut implications yet.
Lakeland programs unaffected
Lakeland College has already determined that its agriculture courses and faculty won’t be affected by the cuts. “The board decided we have to support our core programming and none of the core programming was cut. And agriculture is a big part of our core programming,” said Glenn Charlesworth, president of Lakeland College. The college is facing a $4-million reduction in funds, but the agricultural sciences faculty is being protected because of its recent success. Applications to Lakeland’s agricultural program continue to grow, Charlesworth said, and their graduates often receive multiple job offers. There are plans to expand the program in the future.
Charlesworth said they are suspending nine programs the school offers in other areas. He said they had to decide if they wanted to spread the cuts over all different areas or if they wanted to stop doing 10 per cent of what they do and maintain quality in what was left. They opted for the latter.
The dean of the University of Alberta’s faculty of agricultural, life and environmental sciences (ALES) didn’t know the extent of probable cuts yet, but anticipates some impact. “The university’s faced with what’s essentially a 10 per cent gap between what we were promised and what we are getting, and that budget cut is going to apply across the institution,” said Dean John Kennelly. If the cut to the ALES faculty is proportional, Kennelly said they could be facing a $3-million reduction to their budget. That’s equivalent to 25 professors, though he suspects the cuts will hit a combination of staff and programming.
This hit comes after the faculty has already faced some reduced funding over the past few years. Kennelly said funds were promised by the province for programs identified as indemand such as nutrition and food safety. That funding didn’t come through as expected. To address that funding issue, they’ve managed to avoid filling positions as they become vacant. Kennelly said if the faculty is hit by these new budget cuts, it will have no choice but to reduce programs.
The faculty is the most research-intensive faculty at the University of Alberta and its graduates are in high demand by industry, Kennelly said. He fears the excellence built over the last 10 years will be undermined by the severity of the present cuts.
As for the talk of eliminating duplicate programs across the province, he pointed out the government must approve any new program before it opens or before a program is shut down. “So the duplication we’re talking about, it’s duplication the government approved,” Kennelly said.
Comments from Grande Prairie Regional College and the University of Lethbridge about any potential effects of budget cuts on their agricultural programming weren’t available by deadline.
