View Publication
In 2016 the Manitoba PCs were elected on an election platform that included moderate fiscal restraint: simply hold growth in spending below the rate of growth in the economy and the budget, which was in deficit, would be balanced over two terms in office. Once elected, however, a stronger austerity agenda quickly materialized that included a dramatic downsizing of the public sector, and legislated wage restraint. One of the first targets of the government’s austerity agenda was higher education.
The University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) was in the midst of wide-ranging negotiations with the University of Manitoba in the summer and fall of 2016 over both monetary and non-monetary items. Both sides had tabled wage proposals, when something very strange happened. The University unexpectedly, and without explanation, pulled their wage offer from the table. The original offer of a 7 percent raise over four years was replaced with a one-year wage freeze.
Such tactics are a hallmark of bad-faith bargaining, as the Manitoba Labour Board later ruled. What UMFA wasn’t told was that the university was ordered to do so behind the scenes by the provincial government. The government did not want a public sector union negotiating wage increases when they were about to introduce Bill 28 - The Public Services Sustainability Act – that mandated all public sector workers take two years of 0 percent increases, followed by 0.75 percent and 1.0 percent in year 4.
That government interference in collective bargaining was key to triggering a 21-day strike at the University of Manitoba in the fall of 2016, and was later ruled by the courts as a violation of charter rights. The courts ordered the government of Manitoba to pay UMFA an award of $19.3 million as compensation.
This was the leading edge of a policy of prolonged austerity in Manitoba’s post-secondary sector. The true scope of the government’s austerity agenda became crystal clear at the outset of the pandemic.
In April of 2020, the Minister of Finance Scott Fielding gave colleges and universities 5 days to prepare for cuts of up to 30 percent of provincial funding. The Treasury Board in formal presentations to the universities presented claims of pandemic-induced budget deficits, and declared that higher education was not an essential service: they were to cut their budgets dramatically so ‘everyone could row together.’
The proposed cuts created panic across the post-secondary sector, and ultimately proved to be out of alignment with government’s actual revenue declines. Offers to backfill the lost funding with operating surpluses were rebuffed. The government insisted on faculty lay-offs, falsely claiming that the pandemic would result in enrollment declines.
In the chaos brought on by the pandemic, the government saw an opportunity to fast-track the austerity driven changes they wanted in the post-secondary sector: a 30 percent cut to public funding. Until the pandemic, they had been slow-playing those cuts by reducing funding in real dollars year after year, but thought they could use the chaos of the pandemic to cut further and faster. But a public outroar, not only from the post-secondary sector, but the business community too, forced the Pallister government to back down on the proposed cuts. It was the beginning of the end for Mr. Pallister.
This turbocharged austerity policy created panic among students and workers on our college and university campuses. Stress levels soared, so much so that some faculty who feared their careers were at an end experienced suicidal ideations. Mr. Pallister had gone too far. His laser focus on austerity and balancing the budget while cutting taxes sharply cost him his job: subterranean poll numbers showed that Manitobans overwhelmingly rejected his policies during the crisis of the pandemic and he was forced to step down as Premier in the fall of 2021.
The post-secondary sector proved him wrong. Enrolments did not fall during the pandemic, and colleges and universities pivoted quickly to online teaching to allow students to continue their studies uninterrupted. No sector of the economy adapted better and more quickly than our post-secondary institutions. Manitoba’s colleges and universities provided shelter from the storm for our youth, all made possible by the hard work and ingenuity of faculty, staff and administrators during a time of extreme crisis.
Grant: Community-Driven Solutions to Poverty: Challenges and Possibilities - 2020-2027
Category: Education, Training, and Capacity Building