Provincial funding mix-up adds to ACC deficit

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This article was published 15/05/2023 (1220 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A major bureaucratic mix-up from the province left Assiniboine Community College short on additional funding for its new Neepawa nursing program, resulting in a roughly $300,000 increase to the institution’s projected deficit for the 2023-24 academic year.

While that nursing program is still moving ahead as planned, ACC president Mark Frison told the Sun the province’s last-minute retraction of the funding in March not only ended up adding to the college’s deficit, but also forced them to cut at least one industrial mechanic course, all because of some miscommunication within the government’s ranks.

“Any way you slice it, it’s clear that the left hand wasn’t talking to the right hand inside of the bureaucracy, that that resulted in a miscommunication with us and overall we’re short on cash,” Frison said on Friday.

Frison further explained that ACC’s 2023-24 operating budget was originally put together based on the understanding that the province would earmark separate funding for new projects on top of the base funding that all post-secondary schools receive in Manitoba every year.

In February, the province announced it would provide ACC with $2.1 million over several years to bankroll a one-time, 25-student cohort for its practical nursing diploma program in Neepawa.

Frison believed this was true up until the morning of March 1, having received a letter from Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and Training Eric Charron confirming that ACC would get an additional $837,060 in operating funding and $509,726 in capital to support this Neepawa cohort in 2023-24.

However, Frison said Charron’s office retracted that funding notice later that same day, with the province ultimately telling him that additional monies for the Neepawa nursing site was included in the school’s original base funding.

“So that cut against the grain of what the officials originally had told us, that program funding would be separate, and it retracted a note from earlier that day that said ‘yes and here’s that separate money,’” he said.

“So I wouldn’t characterize it as a [broken] promise exactly. But I would characterize it as different than what bureaucratic officials had told us originally.”

Because of this last-minute development, Frison said ACC was forced to change its financial forecast for the 2023-24 fiscal year, passing a budget in late April with a projected deficit of around $750,000 instead of the $400,000 that was anticipated before this mix-up took place.

In a Friday email to the Sun, a government representative stated this miscommunication between the province and ACC was simply the result of “human error” and that members of the Advanced Education department will be “working closely with ACC leadership to address the March 1st funding letter.”

“The province looks forward to the launch of our new Practical Nursing Diploma program in the town of Neepawa,” the representative wrote.

In terms of ACC staff reaction, Frison said it has been difficult for them to digest this funding retraction, since the government’s uneven distribution of funding grants, in general, has been especially noticeable this year.

While larger schools like the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba received a 20.2 per cent and 10.8 per cent increase in base funding, respectively, regional institutions like Brandon University and ACC had to make do with a 3.9 per cent and two per cent boost.

Even though this uneven distribution model is nothing new, Frison still believes this strategy is short-sighted, especially since regional institutions like BU and ACC provide access to higher education for people who don’t have the means to enrol in Winnipeg-based schools.

“In order to make ground on accessibility, geography is one of the key elements,” he said. “People often focus on tuition, but geography has a much bigger impact on accessibility than tuition.”

Despite this major funding mix-up, Frison remains optimistic about ACC’s overall relationship with the province moving forward.

Having taken new Advanced Education and Training Minister Sarah Guillemard on a tour of the ACC campus in Brandon earlier this month, Frison believes that she is committed to following through on the promises made by her predecessor, such as adding 400 new nursing education training seats throughout the province.

“I also think we’re going to see some stuff related to early childhood education here in the weeks to come,” he said.

“So I’m incredibly encouraged about the environment in general, and I actually think that ACC has the opportunity to do very well in terms of the program side of it.”

ACC’s new two-year nursing cohort will be operational in Neepawa starting in January 2024.

ACC is also currently running practical nursing rural rotating sites in Virden, Arborg, Morden and Otterburne, with all these programs being made possible due to provincial funding.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson