Federal govt starts off consultations so other colleges can steer clear of Laurentian’s destiny
The federal govt is starting off a month of consultations on how to better shield publish-secondary establishments when they grow to be bancrupt, so they can avoid the same fate at Laurentian College.
In February 2021 the Sudbury, Ont. university submitted for insolvency. Laurentian grew to become the to start with public college to use the Companies’ Lenders Arrangement Act (CCAA) to restructure following its fiscal troubles.
By way of that procedure, which has formerly been employed for company restructuring, Laurentian slash 69 programs, and almost 200 employees and faculty associates lost their employment.
“What happened at Laurentian University has elevated concerns as to no matter whether our recent insolvency regulations are fit for objective to assistance publicly funded post-secondary institutions take care of monetary distress,” Innovation, Science and Sector Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a information launch about the future consultations.
“The effects this insolvency experienced on staff members, students and the whole Sudbury neighborhood, was troubling and we need to have to make certain we learn from what transpired.”
Sue Wurtele, president of the Ontario Confederation of University School Associations (OCUFA), explained she welcomed the news about the consultations.
“It is really a required initial phase in obtaining to the level of altering the legislation to exclude community universities from these insolvency procedures,” she claimed.
“We’ve been doing the job tough on this situation and the consultations, to us, are the very first phase in making people improvements.”
OCUFA signifies 17,000 college faculty and tutorial librarians across Ontario.
Wurtele mentioned the CCAA process was “fully inappropriate” for the college sector, and was intended for company settings.
The confederation would like to see the federal authorities amend the CCAA to omit community universities from the legislation.
Wurtele said provinces should also do the job closely with universities to aid them obtain other solutions if they turn into insolvent.
Laurentian gerontology university student Denice Zhuang said she hopes pupils will be in a position to participate in the consultations.
“We were not consulted just before the (CCAA) procedure started out, or even after the approach and all the adjustments that followed,” she stated.
Zhuang added universities really should not be taken care of like a vending machine that “spits out a degree.”
“Which is not really the intention of the college and which is not what Canadians want or have to have,” she mentioned.
