A five percent cut to all universities, colleges and technical institutes across the province was handed out last week by the Provincial Government as a part of the 2017/18 budget.

Great Plains College President David Keast says the cuts, while not unexpected, will still have an impact.

“What happened to Great Plains College and other regional colleges in the province was a five percent cut in operations and some other cuts, smaller cuts, in other funding areas such as adult basic education,” he said. “For Great Plains College, [cuts meant] a cut in our scholarship funding as well, which was a little disappointing, but we’ll just have to cope with it.”

Keast says the cuts will mean a funding reduction in operations, slight over $350,000, he estimates.

“it’s not clear to me today what kind of impact this will have on the College, because we’ll be going into a budget review for fiscal year 17/18 to try and determine that,” he said. “We will be looking for efficiencies and effectiveness, and new ways to find money.”

Regardless of the cuts, regional colleges play a vital role in not only Swift Current, but the province as a whole.

“Especially during these times of talk of transformational change,” he said. “The regional colleges, in my opinion, are vital to the rural economy of the province in the four corners of the province.

“To get programming out in those communities... the regional college, with its ability to turn on a dime and respond to local labour market demands and adjust and adapt programming to that, is absolutely essential to the economy.”

Keast says he is asking the province to consider alternatives to models like one-board governance and amalgamation of other regional colleges, in order to create efficiencies while still providing a vital service.

“I think the regional colleges are the centrepiece of economic growth in the long-term,” he said. “We can’t tell exactly what the impact of the budget reductions will be. My estimation for Great Plains College is that it’s going to be a challenging year, but a manageable one.”