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'We have no financial difficulties'

Still, more provincial funding needed, college's president says
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Sault College file photo, Darren Taylor/SooToday

Sault College is in good financial shape, but an increase in provincial government funding would be appreciated.

That from Ron Common, Sault College president.

Common wrapped up the open session of Thursday's Sault College board of governors meeting with a reminder David Carter-Whitney, Assistant Deputy Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, would be visiting the college the following day and that the president wished to discuss "financial challenges" with him.

But that isn't as ominous as it may have sounded.

"Sault College is definitely not in financial distress, Sault College is not laying people off, or any of that," Common told SooToday.

"We have no financial difficulties."

"We are working very hard to be good stewards (of our funding) . . . we exercise due diligence to operate within our means," Common said.

"I was trying to bring his (the minister's) attention to financial challenges in the existing college funding formula, because the province is currently developing a new funding formula," Common said of Carter-Whitney's Friday visit.

"My input was that the current, one-size funding formula does not fit all, and that Sault College, and I suspect other Northern colleges, have unique circumstances that need to be recognized in the new funding formula that they (the province) are working on."

"I would like to see a greater recognition of the challenges that small rural and Northern colleges have," Common said.

"The ministry created a Northern and rural grant which is a separate, special purpose grant that's distributed based on criteria, that attempts to recognize we have higher costs and lower volumes in our (Northern) organizations, but that grant has been static and unchanged since 2008."

Annual revenue for Sault College was $56,114,338 for 2015, Common said.

The Northern, rural grant represents 12 percent of that total revenue.

"Obviously we have, as all colleges do, inflation and rising costs, so that's the message I gave to him, to recognize our unique challenges (and increase that Northern, rural grant)," Common said.


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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