VIU and other universities face deficits in British Columbia

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City of Nanaimo, Nanaimo RCMP, and VIU criminology students team up to conduct neighbourhood safety audits

The City of Nanaimo, the RCMP and student criminologists from Vancouver Island University are teaming up with selected neighbourhoods to help make them safer. The group is preparing to conduct safety audits. Nanaimo's community policing coordinator, Christy Wood says the audits are a response to what citizens have been asking for.

"Community members wanted to have a voice, and they wanted to not feel helpless and feel empowered to build some resiliency in their neighbourhoods and communicate their concerns to those social service agencies and local decision-makers about what was happening for them in their neighbourhood."
—City of Nanaimo Community Policing Coordinator, Christy Wood.

The process is underway, with a crime analyst crunching statistics about the type of crimes committed and the harms they cause in various neighbourhoods. Census data and anecdotal information is also being collected to select neighbourhoods that need the most help. Wood says after that, local surveys will measure the perception of neighbourhood crime and the level of fear people are feeling. The team will present a final audit report to the neighbourhoods and to decision-makers and organizations in late March or early April. The audits will include what can be done to address the safety issues in each neighbourhood and identify partnerships to implement the recommendations.

Decline in enrollment cited as a factor, Ministry of Advanced Education approves deficits

Vancouver Island University says a decline in student enrolment and extra costs due to COVID-19 has led to a deficit in the current fiscal year and will likely lead to another deficit next year. The university says international student enrolment dropped by 34 per cent while domestic enrolment dipped by 13 per cent. It says pivoting to online instruction and extra cleaning has also affected the bottom line. VIU is not alone. That's why the Ministry of Advanced Education is allowing post-secondary institutions to run deficits.

VIU's Provost, Carole Stuart says post-secondary institutions would have preferred increased funding from the Ministry.

"You're speaking to the converted [laughs] we have tried."

The Ministry says colleges and universities will have to dip into their reserves to pay for the deficits. Stuart won't reveal the projected size of the deficit for 2020-2021, but she says dipping into reserves will have a long-lasting impact.

"While we can accommodate that over the next two years and deal with it we also have to come up with a deficit recovery plan so that means we'll be running very lean for the next two years in order to do that."
—VIU Provost, Carole Stuart.

Stuart says at best, running deficits will allow the university to keep its focus on students and programming, while areas like building maintenance take a back seat.