“They’ve said to me that this is a beautifully balanced budget, and they’re very confident in it.”
On August 18, the Board of Directors (BOD) for the University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU) convened for an emergency meeting to pass their 2023-24 budget. The meeting was called to order at 12:11 p.m. and had two motions on the agenda, both brought by the operations commissioner, Fiona Broughton.
Motion A) The budget
Broughton presented her draft of the 2023-24 budget, sharing that members of the finance department had taken part in its creation and were pleased with the version being presented to the BOD. With technical assistance from deputy clubs and services commissioner, Lukas Redmond, Broughton presented the budget to the board before taking questions.
Broughton scrolled through the tabs of the budget, explaining the unions operational revenue as being the incoming student levies which are broken into specific fees designating their uses in the budget; “core operations fee, health, wellness and safety, academic support, athletics and recreation, and student life.” Broughton went on to mention that the projected revenue for student levies was based on last year’s enrollment numbers.
“It’s a conservative estimate for our revenues as we all understand registration is something that’s increasing every year. But just to make sure that we budget safely, we take a conservative estimate of those [undergraduate enrolment] numbers,” she said.
Broughton went on to share the union’s estimated revenue for the year from student fees. “This is the estimate for the year’s grand total of fees broken down by three semesters which is $5,600,000 approximately.” She explained other potential revenues of interest earnings from the union’s bank holdings, throwing out a $120,000 figure.
Broughton explained that after expenses for the unions, the budget projected a $67,000 deficit for the year; though she added that members of the finance department called the budget responsible and conservative. They expected that their conservative estimates for income, as well as their maximum budget for payroll expenses, gave them good reason to feel that the deficit, in reality, would not be as severe as this projection. “They’ve said to me that this is a beautifully balanced budget, and they’re very confident in it.”
Buying a new business
The UOSU is putting together a bid for the juice bar space on the second floor of the UCU. This would be the second business launched by the union, following the re-launch of PIVIK. Broughton’s budget included that this business would be projected to create a $36,000 deficit in its first year.
Club funding
“Here we have club funding which is $125,000. So that’s budgeted on, we give out basic funding to all clubs up to $500, not all of them take all of that, some of them apply for other grants, so this is budgeting for approximately all of our clubs to be receiving that full basic funding amount.” said Broughton, regarding the clubs budget.
Later when Broughton took questions, social sciences director Max Christie had questions regarding the budget for the Club Administration Service (CAS, formerly CVUO), more specifically the amount allocated to club funding. “Do you happen to know how much in dollars and cents we sent specifically to clubs last year, and how much we’re budgeting to send to clubs this year?”
In response to Christie, Broughton made reference to a recent Reddit post concerned that “slashing funding could stifle the very essence that makes [U of O] special.”
The Reddit post asked students to speak up about “a shocking 65 per cent cut in club funding, from $355k last year to $125k this year” and sign onto a petition asking the board to reconsider this item of the budget.
“As I’m sure you know Max, there was a Reddit post that said it was $355,000 [given to clubs last year]. That was news to me. So I did some digging, literally last night, further into our documents. Apparently, it was $355,000 and that was not directly reflected in the budget.”
Broughton said that the $355,000 figure was not easily traceable in documents, highlighting a previous issue with transparency at the union. It was clarified that the figure had started with $218,000 and was later “topped up” through a meeting of the finance committee.
Telfer director Justin Delphy stated he would not vote for any less than last year’s original amount of $218,700 and moved to amend the budget. In an effort to find common and “responsible” ground, engineering director Daniel Thorp proposed that figure be amended to $200,000. Delphy declared Thorp’s motion unfriendly and it was put to a vote which passed, making the budget for club funding $200,000 (plus 6.5 per cent for inflation).
Redmond was granted speaking rights for the meeting and shared his research on club funding at other Canadian Universities’ student unions. He argued that UOSU gave much more than other university student groups with comparable or larger student bodies.
The budget line for club funding was amended to $200,000 plus 6.5 percent for inflation, as proposed by Thorp.
Motion B) Black History Month Gala venue
Broughton presented the final motion of the meeting to approve a $58,981.04 expenditure for the AV, venue, and catering costs of the 2024 Black History Month gala. This set the venue for the event as the Infinity Convention Centre.
The Fulcrum spoke with Broughton following the meeting and asked about transportation to the event given the venue’s location (near Ottawa’s airport). Broughton was not sure of plans for transportation but expected that it had not yet been determined.
Fiona Broughton’s resignation
In the week after this meeting, Broughton resigned from her role as operations commissioner of UOSU. Her last day with the union was August 25.
Students can find UOSU’s budget in the union’s SharePoint.
