Delays in its annual budget approval may cost the SA everything.
For the first time in the nearly 30-year history of the Student Association of George Brown College (SAGBC), the board of directors refused to pass the annual budget.
During the monthly board of directors meeting held July. 17, the board opted not to pass the motion to approve the budget for academic year 2023/2024.
An emergency meeting was held on Aug. 3 to discuss the passing of the budget further. At this meeting, the business centre educational representative suggested delaying the decision by two months.
Sonakshi Chanana, business educational centre representative said, “I think the main thing of not passing [the budget] was just us being not able to decide if we really have to pass the budget or not. So just like the whole motion was to be held back for like two months so that we can get more time to understand where everything is being financed.”
The next meeting to discuss approval of the budget will be held Oct. 23
The annual budget of SAGBC ensures the operations of the organization which include services provided to students such as Health Benefits, Student Nutrition Access Program, and Community Care Centre among others.
Health Benefits includes health coverage plans for international students that the SA is legally obligated to provide.
The board has expressed the need for additional time to understand the budget and how programs are financed. However, the budget was put forward for approval after in-depth discussions within the operations committee, and a prior approval meeting with the board of directors themselves.
“My interpretation of the motion, which was a surprise motion, is not something that I heard in any of the first meeting that the Board reviewed the budget or in operations committee. The October meeting is nonsensical to me because a board cannot work through its financing at a board meeting table. You’re not opening up the Excel sheets,” said Rosalyn Miller, general manager with the SAGBC.
Chanana’s shared that her understanding of the situation is that the board requires more time to understand how the budget is put together and where the money goes.
“I’d still need more time to understand about the budget. It’s very difficult to really see where all the money is going. And, you know, who’s had how much budget since last year. Or what budget are they expecting to be for this year? So, I think that’s what is taking more of the time and also, we really have to see what benefits the students out of it. And also, us as well,” she said.
When asked if the SA has facilitated anything to provide a deeper understanding about the budget for the board, Chanana said she was unaware.
However, Miller shared that various trainings were provided to the board.
“It’s really concerning given that the business rep attended the financial literacy training, or the audit scheduled with Grant Thornton our auditor in May. Given that there were two trainings to review budgets and just to walk through the old spreadsheet and what the program means and what the line items are,” Miller said. “One of the sessions were three hours and the other one was two and a half hours, in between that there were emails and communications that said, ‘send out your questions to the director of operations or the manager of operations.’ If you have any questions following these budget review sessions, then on July 31, we had a financial literacy training again, part two with Grant Thornton, the auditor.”
“To say that there was no facilitation of information, given that one of the sessions especially the second budget review, lasted about three hours. I’m a bit concerned that statement would have been issued,” said Miller.
Miller is wary that if the budget is not approved in the October meeting and the confusion amongst the board persists, the organization and its programming will need to be shut down.
Further ramifications could include laying off part-time student staff employed by the SAGBC and reducing student access to services.
Miller’s assumption is that the board has confused the approval of the budget with the short-term budget that was put in place during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
“Our budget at the time, we were in communication with the auditor and everyone decided that given the uncertainty of this pandemic, the unknown of a lockdown the inability for George Brown to confirm… to what degree will we operate, we established what was called a rolling budget. [This means] we approved our budget, an annual budget, with a motion that says we will revisit this budget in October, because that’s when we would have the final numbers of enrollment from George Brown,” said Miller.
She reiterated that the organization has certain contractual obligations and liabilities that it is responsible for. The lack of approval for an annual budget by the board causes the SA to struggle to fulfil these obligations and plan strategically for the coming year.
Chanana said that she feels the need for the board to sit together outside of the monthly board meeting to review the budget to be able to pass it.
She believes interference of staff during the board meeting and the formal setting of these meetings prevents the board from discussing their ideas and opinions regarding the budget.
Miller hopes that the board of directors showcase transparency in what they are seeking through the delaying of the budget approval process.
“When I look at this process, the only thing I can think of is in the election process. Folks campaign on different things right, and it’s not to say that we haven’t seen where a campaign promise is sort of pushed into the organization or brought to the organization as a personal individual goal. I believe that many of the board members have individual interests based on maybe what they want their legacy to be or what their campaign promise was. However, that’s not communicated in a clear tangible way,” Miller said.
Further delay in approving the budget can result in violation of federal laws, related to provision of health coverage, and contractual obligations with various vendors and the college itself.
“We’re a large institution. And so, it’s unprecedented to be relegated to the short-term pockets of funding. It does destabilize an organization and I think it’s an ineffective way to respond to whatever new or changes or new ideas or new program areas that the board of directors would like to see,” Miller said, “We always have to have a plan and be prepared for our student population, not after they arrive, but before they arrive.”
Hadja Bah, director of operations, Muhammad Usman, director of education and equity, & Max Davidson health sciences educational centre representative, were all approached for comment but refused to speak on the matter.
