March 12th: Update to Membership
SAFA’s Response to Budget 2024
As details of the provincial budget begin to be illuminated for the public, the light it shines does not show an improved story for post-secondary institutions. First, the Minister of Advanced Education made a pre-budget announcement, promising an infusion of $24 million annually for the next three years. This fund is earmarked for creating 3,200 new apprenticeship seats across 11 post-secondary institutions province-wide, with SAIT poised to be a major beneficiary, given the announcement’s location.
While this additional funding is welcomed, it’s hard not to see it as a sleight of hand, diverting attention from the overall budget’s true impact as we approach a pivotal bargaining year in post-secondary. The reality of Budget 2024 for post-secondary institutions is a 7.3% per capita spending cut across the board. This is just one of the many messages to the 200,000 plus public-sector workers beginning bargaining this year that the Government of Alberta has no interest in recognizing their decades-long financial sacrifices with fair compensation.
What makes this per capita cut even more egregious is the fact that the budget simultaneously boosted taxpayer support for for-profit colleges such as Makimi College, a move that raises eyebrows. Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations (CAFA), Dan O’Donnell, had this to say: “Our public institutions, our public universities, are the way we maximize the value of our tax dollars – and then saying to people, you can do the same thing as the public but we’re going to guarantee profit for you as well, is just throwing good money after bad.”
At a recent press conference, when the premier was asked about upcoming public-sector bargaining and potential flexibility beyond her 2% offer, her response was that she can’t and that “we’re all in this together”. We may be all in this together; however, no one has made more monetary sacrifices in the last decade than public-sector workers, including post-secondary educators. It’s time that this was acknowledged with a fair wage increase, not a bait and switch.
In solidarity,
Craig Coolahan
Labour Relations Officer, SAFA