As President Kennedy has shared, due to the federal government’s sweeping changes to Canada’s international student program, Niagara College is facing significant financial and enrolment pressures that require organizational savings and new ways of generating revenue to achieve a balanced budget for 2025-26.
We are working to implement clear, informed strategies to tackle these challenges. As part of this important work, the College has developed a one-time Retirement Incentive Initiative that will provide a lump-sum payment to eligible employees who choose to retire before December 31, 2025, under this initiative.
This opportunity is available to all employees who will be eligible for a reduced or unreduced pension by December 31, 2025. The program is entirely voluntary, and eligible employees who opt in to the program will receive a payment equal to two weeks of salary for every year of service to a maximum of 52 weeks of salary.
While other colleges have implemented similar programs, ours is uniquely NC. The incentive is calculated in a way that recognizes both part-time and full-time service, all eligible employees who choose to opt in will be approved, and the amount of lump sum incentive reflects the important contributions and value of our employees.
All eligible employees will receive instructions later today on how to access personalized details, including their years of service and lump-sum payment calculation. A Q&A reference document will also be provided and eligible employees are encouraged to review this information. If you are not eligible for the program, you will not receive a memo. While the deadline for participation is February 7, 2025, we’re sharing this information now to provide ample time for eligible employees to carefully consider their options and make an informed decision.
As President Kennedy has shared previously, while we expect to end the current fiscal year with a surplus, the outlook for subsequent years will be very different, and a number of measures will be required to balance our budgets moving forward. It’s the financial flexibility created by this year’s surplus that allows us to introduce the Retirement Incentive Initiative, which in turn will create cost savings in subsequent budget years.
This initiative builds on other measures we’ve identified, including growing enrolments in high-demand areas and accelerating development of new programs; delayed hiring except for essential positions or those that directly support student recruitment and retention or revenue generation; re-prioritizing capital projects; and focusing on service delivery models that support student retention and success.
On behalf of the executive team, I want to reaffirm our commitment to being open and transparent as we navigate these challenging times. With our 2025-2026 budget process now underway, we will continue to provide timely updates on our progress, as we strive to achieve a balanced budget for the next fiscal year.
