Protests continue in Alberta in the wake of deep cuts to post-secondary education funding announced in the province’s 2013–2014 budget last March.

And although controversial draft “letters of expectation” have been set aside for five months, institutions have started laying off staff, while slashing library, travel and IT budgets, as they grapple with a seven per cent reduction cut to their operating grants this year.

The long-term effects of such a massive cut will be “devastating,” says the president of the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations, Ron Sutherland.

“The research universities stand to lose the upcoming generation of researchers to other jurisdictions, and the quality and range of the education we can offer our students is bound to suffer,” he added.

“No one can seriously argue that a cut of $147 million in one year will help improve the system or build capacity.”

After an April 11 meeting with post-secondary board chairs and presidents, Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk backed away from prescriptive letters of expectation that would have required schools to sign on to government mandated goals. Instead, Alberta’s colleges and universities now have until September to negotiate “memorandums of understanding” outlining their roles.

But he raised the stakes further with a follow-up letter to the province’s 26 post-secondary institutions, suggesting three years of wage freezes followed by no more than a two per cent salary increase in the fourth year, and “negotiated deals which include methods to achieve productivity gains by remedying any inefficiency in current agreements.”

Critics point to the letter’s directives as potential infringement on the independence of post-secondary institutions, and say collective agreements are within the purview of boards and academic staff associations alone.

Doug Short, president of the Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association, said that even the suggestion of limiting a free collective bargaining process undermines sections of the Post-Secondary Learning Act which enshrine faculty associations as partners in the affairs of the institutions.

“The minister, with perhaps the collaboration of institutional administrators, has overreached his mandate. His statements in this letter are inappropriate,” he said. Short, who’s also president of the academic staff association at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, noted that teaching staff at the institute are currently in the midst of conducting contract negotiations under the combined pall of the Minister’s letter, as well as NAIT’s decision to cut about 35 faculty positions and 15 non-academic or management positions following on the provincial funding cut.

A surprise “tuition freeze” announcement in mid-April by the Tory government has also been criticized as an attempt to deflect from the cuts. The “freeze” will cover a 2.15 per cent inflation increase that would have been added to tuition bills, but will now be made up to post-secondaries by a $16.5 million contribution from government coffers.

The sleight of hand manoeuvre means students will pay the same amount for the 2013–2014 school year that they did in 2012–2013, but many students remain concerned about the impact of the cuts elsewhere in the system.

The Council of Alberta University Students, which represents undergraduate students at the province’s three largest universities, has joined the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations in signing a letter to Premier Alison Redford and Lukaszuk, warning of “serious, long term impacts on the PSE system caused by the deep budget cuts.”

Students also turned out in solidarity with University of Lethbridge academic staff and supporters in a “Cause U Matter” rally last month to protest the $11.9 million cut from the Uof L’s budget, citing fears that academic programming will inevit­ably be compromised.

CAUT president Wayne Peters said protests, letters and continued opposition to the provincial budget cuts to post-secondary education are required to get the point across.

“We are extremely pleased such a strong position has been taken by students and staff in opposition to this government’s misguided and backwards approach to post-secondary education,” he said.

“Investing in universities and colleges is one of the key ways to help Alberta diversify its economy and promote more stable finances.”

The University of Alberta aims to save $25 million this year with a combination of layoffs, smaller library and IT budgets, and reduced administrative spending.

However, academic programming may also be affected as UofA president Indira Samarasekera has warned the campus community she is looking to eliminate $67 million in spending to deal with the reduced provincial funding and lower investment income.

Lukaszuk has denied any cuts to programming are proceeding, saying his ministry must approve any program suspensions or all-out cancellations, and that no applications to do so have so far materialized.

He told the Edmonton Journal he would review the level of salary and wage settlements when he approves each institution’s budget this year, with an eye to the model outlined in his letter.

“If the schools ask me to close programs, I will look at what they are doing for efficiencies, what they are proposing on the salary side,” Lukaszuk said, adding that teaching loads could also be on the table.