Northern College to lay off staff, faculty as it faces $6M deficit this year

Northern College in Timmins says it will need to lay off staff and faculty due to falling revenues in the wake of the 2024 federal cap placed on international student permits.

In September, the federal government announced it would slash the number of visas it issues to international students by 10 per cent. The new target for 2025 and 2026 will be 437,000 permits. In 2024, the target was 485,000 permits.

Northern College, like colleges and universities across Ontario, relies on the higher tuition fees paid by international students.

According to data from the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, almost 80 per cent of all students enrolled at Northern College in the 2021-2022 academic year came from abroad, and almost all of them were from India.

The college said in a news release on Friday that it's projecting an operational deficit of $6 million for the 2025-2026 academic year and $12 million in the 2026-2027 academic year. 

"Unfortunately, due to the combination of existing funding models, reduced international recruitment numbers and growing costs due to inflation, Northern has had to make the difficult decision to reduce its existing staffing complement," Northern College president and CEO Mitch Dumas said in a news release.

The college has not yet said how many staff and faculty members could lose their jobs due to the projected deficits.

But it said it has worked to develop early retirement incentives and voluntary exit incentive packages since May 2024.

"These packages were designed to offer employees the opportunity to make the decision for themselves, and to grant them the time and financial stability to move on to a new chapter successfully," the news release said.

"In addition to these incentive packages, the college will also be issuing layoff notices as required.

"This isn't the first time in our institutional history that we've faced an uncertain future, or endured financially difficult times, and we'll weather this as we've done before," said Dumas. 

"I would like to say that this was an incredibly difficult decision for us to make."