REGINA – The president of the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Faculty Association was at the Legislature this week to raise concerns about layoffs at the post-secondary institutions.
Michelle Downton, president of the association, was in the gallery for Question Period and was scheduled to meet Minister of Advanced Education Ken Cheveldayoff on the issue.
Layoffs over the past year had reached 151 and counting according to figures from the government in recent weeks, and in speaking to reporters Downton noted the impact that was having.
“Saskatchewan Polytechnic is in a bad situation,” Downton said. “We are, over the last year I've seen 100 of my faculty receive layoff notices. I see them bumping into different positions and finding that the places they've bumped into have been destabilized and are maybe targeted for termination of their program and could be laid off again subsequently.”
Downton said she was “concerned about the longevity and the functionality of Saskatchewan Polytechnic as we deal with these massive layoffs and underfunding.” She also was not impressed with the multi-year funding agreement the government signed recently with post-secondary institutions.
“My concern is that that funding agreement does have a shortfall from the Saskatchewan Polytechnic operational budget. And so we are seeing, we've seen massive layoffs and we will continue to see those layoffs as this shortfall is realized.”
She said that she sees students and faculty being hugely impacted as more programming is cut or relocated. One program she is particularly concerned about is Health Information Management, which she said is being suspended permanently this fall due to declining enrolment.
“This is a huge disservice to Saskatchewan as a whole,” Downton said.
“I worked in health care. I have been a nurse for 22 years and I've worked with health information management people.,They're essential for our health care functionality. And right now we're not in a great place with health care. So to erode further support systems is critical…I'm concerned that there will be unintended consequences as a result of us not being able to provide this within the province. We would be the only large province that does not provide a health information program.
The NDP’s Advanced Education critic Tajinder Grewal grilled Minister Cheveldayoff on the issue in Question Period on Wednesday.
“Mr. Speaker, more than 100 faculty fired. The entire health information management program shuttered. This Sask Party government is killing Saskatchewan Polytechnic, death by a thousand cuts. For years the Premier has refused to properly fund post-secondary, forcing many schools to rely on international students to balance their books. But now changes to the federal immigration rules have created a massive shortfall in funding. Will the Premier properly fund Sask Poly today and put an end to these series of devastating layoffs?”
In response Minister Cheveldayoff pointed out that “the NDP didn’t even mention post-secondary education in their platform in the last election, Mr. Speaker. But we’ll leave that alone for now.”
Cheveldayoff again pointed to “the $250 million that was given to the post-secondary institutions Nov. 5, 2025. We were able to do a record-setting, historical multi-year funding agreement. We are very proud of that. All of our institutions, Sask Poly included, will remain amongst the most well funded in the country.”
