Delayed budget presentation to be published to the public if amendments raised
On Wednesday, Aug. 30, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) presented their 2017-18 annual budget, in a largely in-camera Board of Administration (BOA) meeting.
The meeting also featured a discussion on the federation’s the policy manual, which outlines the general goals and stance of the organization.
SFUO vice-president of services and communications Kathryn LeBlanc opened the meeting by moving that one-third of the federation’s constitution be reviewed every year to efficiently revise the federation’s rules and regulations. LeBlanc also clarified that the constitution is separate from the policy manual.
When motivating her motion, LeBlanc said that the constitution in its current form contained errors or other issues, and that this process would set them right.
There was no disagreement from the board on updating the constitution, just some minor discussion on the exact length of time to allot to the updates.
Following this, the board went in-camera for the budget presentation, closing the meeting to the public.
According to LeBlanc, if there were amendments raised at the budget meeting that would raise reasons for the budget presentation to be reviewed with the accountants, as well as other reasons for revision. Those issues can delay the budget from being released to the public.
The SFUO’s current annual expenditures are approximately $18 million, according to their last budget statement.
The U-Pass is the biggest part of the budget, at around $12 million, followed by the health plan at $4 million. Other important areas of the budget include money allocated to social events, campaigns, elections.
One expected change this year is that the SFUO will again start to fund clubs. While the SFUO stopped funding clubs last year, in the wake of its brush with bankruptcy, vice-president finance Rizki Rachiq stated at a previous meeting that the SFUO would begin to fund clubs again this year, though not necessarily the same amounts as in previous years.
When released, the budget will appear on the SFUO’s website.
