Government Relations Update: Engaging with the Province’s Post-Secondary Review
February 2, 2026
Our province’s future depends on a strong post‑secondary system that works for teachers, students, and education workers. Yet decades of underfunding have resulted in chronic instability at institutes like BCIT, eroding supports for students and staff and fostering heavy reliance on international-student tuition. The result is a sector stretched thin at the very moment BC needs it most.
This was the message that the FSA delivered to Don Avison, K.C. who’s leading the provincial government’s recently announced independent post-secondary review. FSA President Colin Jones and Executive Director Doug Thorpe-Dorward met with Avison in late December, and our leadership team submitted a brief to the review’s organizers early in the new year.
The FSA presented three recommendations to nurture a better post-secondary system that supports its workers and students.
Centre labour in any institutional change. Faculty and staff, along with students, are the heart of post‑secondary education. If government considers consolidations, mergers, or service changes, workers must be consulted early and meaningfully. Collective agreements are the frameworks that keep post-secondary functioning. Undermining them destabilizes classrooms, programs, and student learning. No legislative changes to existing collective agreements should be considered. Protecting collegial governance is essential; faculty expertise must remain central to academic decision‑making.
Strengthen partnerships with industry. BCIT already collaborates with employers who understand the value of investing locally. Our member-run applied programs respond rapidly to labour‑market needs and rely on industry engagement to stay relevant. Expanding these partnerships can help ensure students are quickly job‑ready while preventing the full cost of post-secondary education from falling on learners.
Provide bridge funding now. The current funding model is unsustainable. Without transitional support, institutions will continue cutting programs, laying off staff, and shrinking student services. This erosion undermines public confidence and threatens BC’s ability to meet workforce demands in construction, health care, technology, and other sectors. Strategic, institution‑specific bridge funding would stabilize the system while long‑term solutions are developed.
BC cannot afford to let its post‑secondary system wither. Investing in education today is not a cost; it is the foundation of the province’s economic resilience, sovereignty, and future prosperity.