Alberta Budget 2025: Weathering the Storm
On February 27th, the Alberta government released its budget for 2025-26. The budget does indicate “stormy skies on the horizon,” thanks to looming trade wars and geopolitical uncertainty imposed by the American President. Yet at the same time, the GMUFA believes Alberta and MacEwan are well-placed to weather the storm. As negotiations move toward salary and compensation, here are a few things to consider.
• In the face of economic headwinds, mostly in the form of US tariffs, the Provincial budget projects a deficit of $5.2 billion. While this may seem alarming, the Province has posted record surpluses in the last four years, including $3.9 billion in 2021-22, $11.6 billion in 2022-3, $4.3 billion in 2023-24 and $5.8 billion in 2024-25. Thanks to this strong fiscal position, the province is well placed to maintain core funding to post-secondary institutions and other sectors. And indeed, the budget retains full capital funding for the MacEwan Business School and MacEwan’s operating budget remains unchanged.
• As an institution, MacEwan is also in a strong financial position. In the last 4 years, MacEwan has posted budget surpluses of $12 million in 2020-21, $8 million in 2021-2022, $13.8 million in 2022-2023, and $31 million in 2023-2024 (of which $18 million was earmarked for the Business building).
It is therefore comforting to know that we have kept our fiscal powder dry. Yet where do these budget surpluses come from? In part, they are the result of a historic underinvestment in public sector workers in general, and in MacEwan faculty in particular. While Alberta is—and will remain—the most prosperous province in the country, MacEwan faculty are among the lowest paid employees in the sector. The average MacEwan salary is $14000 less per annum than that of our peers at Mount Royal, and $20000 less than at the University of Lethbridge. And nationwide, the shortfall is even starker. When compared to leading undergraduate institutions, many of which are in provinces with a lower cost of living, lower average salaries, and lower income taxes than Alberta (despite the tax cut offered in the 2025 budget), we have fallen well behind.
This leaves us at a crossroads. Should MacEwan be serious in its mission to build a leading undergraduate institution with "best-in-kind faculty" and achieve its 2030 goals, it will be necessary to invest not only in shiny new buildings, or in a burgeoning north-Edmonton real estate empire, but in the passionate, hardworking, and highly-qualified faculty who are at the heart of everything MacEwan achieves. Already, the university is facing challenges recruiting new faculty. The reason is obvious: our salaries are not competitive and our workload is high. GMUFA, however, is confident the institution has the financial resources to address some of the historic inflation-adjusted salary losses of the past decade, while investing in improvements to faculty workload that will ensure we prosper in the future. Other institutions, like SAIT, have recently signed off on a 12% salary increase over the next 4 years. While such an adjustment pales in comparison to 17.4% inflation since 2021, it is, at least, a start. At MacEwan, a 12% increase over 4 years would cost the institution approximately $2.5-$3.0 million extra per year, allowing us to continue growing, and to continue posting significant surpluses in years ahead.