SASKATOON (CUP) — Universities in Saskatchewan and Alberta are faced with the challenge of aligning their long-term budgets and projects with the single-year funding commitments they receive from their provincial governments.

Senior administrators at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina agree that multi-year budgets from the provincial government would be beneficial.

Brett Fairbairn, provost and vice-president academic at the U of S,  said the university would be able to plan with confidence if they had a solid idea of what their funding would be for even a three-year timespan. He added that the U of S would not have to worry about withholding funds from projects in case last minutes expenses emerge elsewhere.

“I think it would actually make us more efficient and we could be clearer in the commitments we’re making to students about programs and things that we’ll develop in the university a little bit further ahead,” Fairbairn said.

The provincial budget in Saskatchewan is released at the end of March, giving most universities about five weeks to prepare before they release their own annual budgets.

David Button, U of R vice-president administration, said there is little time for universities to prepare their budgets in accordance to provincial funding.

“Typically we’re starting the year only finding out about what our budget allocation is basically moments before the year starts and when most things, commitments and things like that, are made,” Button said. “It is a challenge but it’s something that’s very common and something that we’ve worked through … for almost forever.”

Strong communication between the Saskatchewan government and universities in the province is essential for the institutions not to be blindsided when the provincial budget is formalized.

“Often we work extremely co-operatively and closely with the ministry folks, who try to give us the best indication they can without any commitment of roughly where they think developments might be,” Button said.

Fairbairn said the U of S stays informed on how the economy is doing, if health-care expenses are under or out of control and whether or not the year’s harvest was strong in order to help predict what the government’s stance will be on post-secondary funding.

Multi-year budgets from the province would give the U of R more stability when predicting what tuition will be, Button said. However, the U of S remains tentative to align tuition with multi-year budgets because of the large revenue source that tuition is for the university.

“That would be a significant extra step. It’s one thing to say year by year … it is another step to sign away your ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances,” Fairbairn said. “So far management hasn’t really been comfortable making that recommendation to the board.”

Fairbairn said the U of S has raised the multi-year issue with ministers and has published its stance in various planning documents.

“We think, the U of S, this would be good. Not just for the U of S, but it would be prudent for the province and for the post-secondary system,” Fairbairn said. “We do think this is an idea worth considering.”

Jessica Jacobs-Mino, acting press secretary to the president of treasury board and minister of finance of Alberta, said in an email to the Canadian University Press that the 2013 budget included a three-year fiscal plan that acknowledges the value of long term budget planning.

“We will use this as a guide in developing budget 2014 and budget 2015. However, given Alberta’s unique position with regard to revenue streams, the Government of Alberta has no plans to alter the current single-year budget format,” Jacobs-Mino said. “Single-year budgets are necessary to allow our government to remain nimble in the face of fluctuating revenues.”

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Graphic: Mike Tremblay