CNA boss details program cuts, job losses

College of the North Atlantic's president and CEO says funding cuts in the provincial budget will result in several programs being axed and the loss of more than 100 jobs.

"Right now we are looking at about 143 people who will face layoffs, about 88 which will be direct layoffs," said Ann Marie Vaughan. "The others would be people who would normally be expected to be called back in the September period."

Vaughan said the government slashed the college's budget by $15 million.

"We weren't aware of the full nature of it [the cuts] until the budget speech," she said. "But we have been doing planning with expected reductions to our budget."

ABE cost $7 million a year

As a result, the Adult Basic Education program, which had been offered at 16 of the 17 CNA campuses across the province, will be eliminated.

"There are about 872 students enrolled in that program right now," said Vaughan. "How many will graduate in June is yet to be known to us."

Vaughan said ABE cost the college nearly $7 million a year, but students enrolled at all levels will be permitted to finish out their academic year. After that, the college will help those students transfer to an ABE program offered at a private institution.

Low enrolment programs cut

Vaughan said other programs with low enrolment numbers - such as visual arts and hospitality tourism in Stephenville, brick laying in Carbonear, and the oil heat systems program in Seal Cove - will be eliminated once the current group of students taking those courses have graduated.

"Let me be clear, we will be training out every one of these students," said Vaughan. "Nobody will be left without their program, in these other programs we're phasing out."

Vaughan says the college is committed to keeping all 17 campuses open and operating.