Good news on BU budget

A message from Brandon University President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. David Docherty to BU faculty and staff on Thursday, May 16, 2024:

Dear colleagues,

Today at the Brandon Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew singled out Brandon University as part of his State of the Province address, and delivered us some excellent news. The premier pledged that the province will be providing to Brandon University an additional $7.4 million in funding over two years, above and beyond the funding in Budget 2024.

We had heard at the last minute to be prepared for a good announcement, and this builds on months of regular and consistent engagement sessions that we have held with the province, which we knew were trending in a positive direction. However, we were unsure on the details until the premier made the announcement at lunchtime today. This new funding appears to go a long way to correcting the imbalance we saw in the province’s last budget, when BU received funding that was far short of that received by institutions headquartered in Winnipeg. We will continue to engage with the province over the next couple of weeks to go over the details of this new funding.

Overall, Premier Kinew’s State of the Province address was a good one for BU. He reiterated the province’s strong commitment to investing in post-secondary education in Brandon and in Westman as a driver of economic development, as a way to train local workers to stay in our region, especially healthcare workers, and to providing opportunity for young people from everywhere in Manitoba.

Obviously this funding will improve this year’s budget, and should ease some of the pressures we were struggling with. But we also know that we have some ongoing structural challenges in our budget that we still must work to address to ensure our financial sustainability.

As we receive details from the province and work to integrate this new funding announcement into our budget, I will be meeting with the Board of Governors’ Finance Committee next week and will be scheduling a Town Hall shortly after that to share that information with you.

Today is a good day for BU. We should all be very pleased that the bulk of the premier’s address today was taken up by support for health care and for education. Today’s funding announcement comes after our long and repeated engagement with the province at all levels. We thank everyone at BU who has taken the time and who continues to let the province know how important regional institutions are and the importance of equitable funding. We appreciate this government’s willingness to listen and understand the value of investing in Brandon and in Westman.

I look forward to sharing additional details with you.

Sincerely,

Dr. David Docherty, President and Vice-Chancellor

BRANDON UNIVERSITY

Contact