In 2024; Immigrants, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced its intention to decrease the number of temporary residents. The measure aimed to reduce the amount of new study permits by 35 per cent, followed by an additional ten per cent in 2025. In TRU nearly 200 jobs and 47 million dollars have been cut since then, and the university is getting ready to face the consequences.
Over the past year, one phrase has resurfaced frequently at Thompson Rivers University Board of Governors meetings: “deficit mitigation program.”
Behind the phrase are decisions about where the university can reduce spending and what those reductions could mean for students, faculty and staff. As TRU works to address its deficit, the university is reviewing academic programming, vacant positions and campus operations in an effort to balance its budget. These reductions come as TRU continues to navigate the financial consequences of federal changes to international student permits. While the university works to stabilize its finances, the decisions made during this process could affect course availability student services and the workloads of faculty who remain at the institution.
“We’re looking for the pennies in the couch,” Provost Gordon Binstead said, in the Sept. 25 board of governors meeting.
Vice-President, Administration & Finance Matt Milovick added, “It’s been the same story I’ve been saying all these years, we have no help,” referring to an absence of financial support the federal government. “One thing we did know in 2024 is that this problem was going to be too large for anybody to help. It was a problem that we would have to deal with ourselves.” Milovick said in a phone call with The Omega.
When mitigation appears, the university must make decisions on where to put its money, and how to reduce spending. That results in cutting down on courses, which leads to fewer students, and then fewer staff, according to Peter Tsigaris, the department of Economics chair. Outside of those consequences, Tsigaris says TRU faculty that remains will have a heavier workload.
“The question now is how cutting will be done? Is it overreacting, and there, you reduce too much, it might lead to a surplus,” Tsigaris said.
Milovick says TRU began planning for reductions in international student enrolment in January 2024, after the federal government announced changes to international student permits.
For the 2025–2026 budget year, TRU made approximately $29.9 million in reductions, Milovick said. After reviewing its financial outlook, the university identified a further $17 million which needed to be saved, which has now shrunk to approximately $7 million still being addressed during the 2026–27 fiscal year.
The remaining reductions are expected to come from several areas, including operational reviews of enrolment, the Registrar’s Office and student services. The university is also reviewing vacant positions, campus operations in Williams Lake and academic planning.
Milovick said TRU had approximately 131 vacant positions at the time of the interview, with only 16 to 18 active job postings. “We’re wondering how many of those that we can actually eliminate without having to eliminate the position with a person in it.” Said the Vice-President of Administration & Finance.
Academic planning is another area under review along with the Williams Lake campus. “Williams Lake, there’s been reductions in enrollments there. The campus has always been too big for what we’ve been able to offer. So we’re looking at efficiency savings there. And then within the provost’s office itself, we’re looking at various, academic planning efficiencies, meaning do we need to run all the same electives that we’ve been running? Do we have too many sections of courses?”
While these measures are intended to improve efficiency, their potential effects on course availability and student services remain important questions for the university community.
Milovick said TRU aims to balance its budget for the 2026–27 fiscal year and establish a more stable financial position going into 2027–28. He also said a surplus would help the university to avoid drawing down on its financial contingencies, which would be needed if conditions worsen.
The university is not relying on increased government assistance to resolve the deficit, Milovick said. Instead, he described the situation as one in which TRU must take responsibility for its own finances while remaining prepared for further uncertainty.
“Hope is not a strategy. We need to take action,” Milovick said.
He added that spending reductions do not mean the university has stopped investing in areas it considers important. The challenge, he said, is to balance those investments with the need to address its financial position.