Salary envelope will have to shrink, Provost tells Senate
McGill needs to move now to try to contain a growing deficit amid a turbulent funding context that is anything but assured, Provost Anthony C. Masi indicated to Senate Wednesday.
Providing an overview of the proposed 2014 budget, which will go to the Board of Governors for approval on April 26, Masi said the combination of sharply reduced revenue and continuing spending commitments – including such things as pay equity, pensions and deferred maintenance – makes it impossible to balance the books in the short term.
The funding cuts from Quebec announced in December ($19.1 million in the current fiscal year and $19.2 million next year) plus the loss of anticipated increased tuition revenue following the reversal of previous planned increases, leaves the University facing a substantial deficit hole in its operating budget that must be addressed now before McGill’s accumulated deficit gets out of control, Masi said.
It won’t be easy. “This is a context of true uncertainty,” Masi told Senate. While a deficit of $7 million had been projected for the 2013 fiscal year, that will now become a $29.8- million deficit, as a result of the government’s cuts and loss of tuition revenue, he said. For the 2014 fiscal year, McGill’s deficit had been projected at $3.9 million. Instead, unless it takes steps to rein in spending, that could balloon to $43.3 million.
Read more in the McGill Reporter.
April 18, 2013