On behalf of the Camosun College Faculty Association, I once again provided recommendations to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services Committee for the 2023 BC Budget Consultation. On June 7th, I presented to the Committee as part of a panel of presenters across Post Secondary, who spoke on similar topics.
Panel 2, Advanced Education – Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at 8:35 a.m.
- Daniel Laitsch, Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC (CUFA BC)
- Brent Calvert, Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC
- Gara Pruesse, Vancouver Island University Faculty Association
- Lynelle Yutani, Camosun College Faculty Association
These are the three topics that I based my specific recommendations on this year:
- Provide Colleges & Teaching Universities with immediate funding to address the pandemic deficits, waiting for the Funding Review will take too long
- Restructure the public sector wages to match regional and national comparators + annual COLA from now on and return to meaningful bargaining between locals and their employers
- Extend the Tuition Grant program to additional equity-seeking groups & increase funding to equity building programs
As we’ve learned in prior years, it is rare that they actually act on any of these recommendations, however, I feel that there is an important significance in making any fair, reasonable, and logical suggestion that is completely ignored or discarded. I plan to make it harder and harder to ignore each year, as you can tell from this excerpt from my presentation:
While it is a pleasure to once again provide my input for the 2023 budget, despite the good work that’s in progress, sadly, I can’t say it actually seems like the recommendations my colleagues and I made to you last year really made an impact to the students and communities I serve.
Fortunately, I don’t give up easily, and I’m back to provide you with recommendations of a more sweeping and radical nature, in the hope that you will have trouble dismissing them without at least entertaining them.
-Lynelle Yutani, Camosun College Faculty Association, 3rd Session, 42nd Parliament, Tuesday, June 7, 2022, Victoria, Panel 2, Advanced Education
We all know real change doesn’t just happen because you ask for it; it usually ends up being a fight. And while we we may be working up to having to fight for it, we are all still working hard for it. Your Union and your Federation together are 10,000 strong; together with the full might of the Post Secondary academic and staff unions, we number greater than 40,000 workers. As the full sector, we are a labour force to be reckoned with. It did not go un-noticed that the recommendations made by our Panel this year were cohesive, aligned, and each reinforced the others. As long as the problems our sector faces keep getting worse, we will continue to find common ground. When we all advocate and fight for better working conditions, students’ learning conditions improve and everyone benefits.
You can listen to the whole recording or read the full transcript which included some lively Q & A regarding International enrolments, micro-credentials, and precarious work on the Legislative Assembly website.
There’s still time to have your say! Click on this link to access the Budget Consultation Portal and submit your own written recommendation or fill out their survey.
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