March 2026 – Volume 33, Issue 2
BUFA Voice
BUFA VOICE
Executive News and Views
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
by Liz Clarke, President
Since the publication of the last BUFA Voice, much has happened at Brock. While our attention has largely been focused on the academic departmental staff restructuring, we also cannot forget the stripping away of pedagogical supports that intensified last year (I will not use the word “began” because this has been building for some years now). Our CUPE 4207 colleagues experienced a reduction of 10% in certain units of their union between September 2024 and September 2025. We have an ongoing grievance about pedagogical supports, which involves multiple members and departments. It is useful for us to understand the current staff restructuring not as the first wave of staff cuts, but as a second. Rumours continue to circulate that there will be further stages of restructuring, centralization, and/or cuts across the university. We don’t know what that restructuring might look like or when it might happen, which is contributing to increased stress and fear for faculty, staff, and students.
We are also preparing for bargaining. We also negotiated a Retirement Package that is available for BUFA members. This is all happening at the same time that the Senior Administration released the Strategic Enrolment Management Framework and the Degree Architecture Town Halls are underway in all the Faculties and Library. We must recognize that all these seemingly disparate elements are connected.
Brock is changing. But we can be involved in those changes. The SEMF and the Degree Architecture require Senate approval for many of the changes to become policy. As a Senator, I attended the Town Hall not just to hear the presentation, but to understand my colleagues’ positions in order to make better informed votes at Senate.
With this entry I want to do two things. First, I want to remind us of all the things we should be paying attention to and remind us that we must make connections between them, outlined above. We have to try to understand how the today’s choices will interact and play out over the years to come.
My second objective with this entry is to remind us that we can and must be part of the University’s decision-making processes however possible. And I want to do so by celebrating our members who are doing that so well.
Senate elections have just closed. We had far more people running for election than spots available. This shows that BUFA members want to be actively involved in academic decision-making. Many of you have written letters to the Provost and the President: letters of protest, letters that outline your concerns, and letters that make reasoned arguments about the staff restructuring. Members have submitted Freedom of Information requests to access the currently secret reports that we are told led to the restructuring plans. Members have put posters on doors. A member helped BUFA create the PowerPoint slide that was sent around to help you speak to your students about the staff restructuring and to share the student petition link.
Members have spoken to the media. Members have taken to social media and spread the message about what is happening at Brock. Members have attended Senate and participated in Senate discussions. Members show up in powerful numbers to town halls held by the unions or held by the Administration. All are useful and must continue. Come together with other workers to strategize collectively. Listen to what others are doing and join in. Show up to the Administration’s Town Halls and ask the difficult questions. Push the Administration to ensure that consultations are, in fact, consultative. Continue what you are doing. Actions big and small add up. To quote Gandalf responding to Frodo about living through dark times: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Check your email for a full list of the BUFA and University Committees with upcoming positions needing to be filled and a description of their mandates.
The Collective Agreement specifically acknowledges service to the Union as equal to service to the University (Article 21.06) and that such service may be included in your Annual Report.
Contact: Tim Ribaric, BUFA Vice President or BUFA by April 2nd, 2026 if you are interested in a committee or have any questions!
Special thanks to all of our valued 2025-2026 committee volunteers!
CHIEF NEGOTIATOR’S REPORT
by Alison Braley-Rattai, Chief Negotiator
The Negotiating Team has been meeting regularly since the fall in preparation for the upcoming round of collective bargaining. Since my last update in The BUFA Voice, the BUFA Executive unanimously endorsed the Bargaining Mandate which was then unanimously approved by the membership at a Special General Membership Meeting on January 22nd. The Team has been meeting weekly to prepare specific bargaining proposals to present to the Employer, based on that mandate. We know that there are many areas of concern for our members in this round including our ever-expanding workloads which makes it increasingly hard to deliver quality education to our students, maintaining our relative position in terms of wages and benefits, and addressing the potential threat of AI and other technologies. What we do not yet know is what the Employer will be seeking in this next round.
Your Negotiating Team and the Employer’s Team have now scheduled 15 bargaining sessions between May 6th and June 30th. I will be in a better position to report back what the Employer may be seeking in this round at our Annual Membership Meeting. As always, the best way you can help yourself and your colleagues get the most out of
this round of bargaining is to visibly demonstrate—to your colleagues, but mostly to the Employer—that you stand behind your Negotiating Team. That means, putting up a poster (or several) on your office door, wearing and carrying BUFA swag (buttons, hats, t-shirts, water bottles, and coffee mugs), attending BUFA events such as the upcoming April 23rd BUFA’s BBQ for Bargaining and May Annual General Meeting on May 7. My personal favourite option is the BUFA virtual background that you can use during Zoom or Teams meetings (especially those where the Employer will be present!). A link to this background that you can use will be circulated soon or is available from your departmental Contract Action Team representative. If you have any questions about any of the above, feel free to reach out to the BUFA office.
Again, we cannot speculate what the Employer may be seeking in this round, or how willing they will be to address our very real concerns about maintaining Brock as a quality place for our students to learn and for us to work. For that reason, it is important that you stay attuned and engaged as we navigate the next phase. I can attest that your Negotiating Team is working thoughtfully and diligently on your behalf to craft responsive and reasonable proposals. I look forward to updating you again in May.
BUFA’S CAT IS ALMOST READY TO POUNCE!
by Jonah Butovsky, CAT Chair
Let me take a bit of your time to tell you why we have a Contract Action Team (CAT) and then how you can help make it stronger!
The goal of the Contract Action Team is to engage the entire membership in bargaining our new Collective Agreement. If this is done effectively the Employer knows that BUFA’s Negotiating Team has the full support of the membership standing with them. Larry Savage, our Chief Negotiator last round, told me that this support was key to getting our deal in 2023. But as Jane McAlevey, Labour Organizer and Author wrote, there are “no shortcuts” to this type of organizing. In fact, there is a lot of work. The work involves hearing from as many members as we can and trying to understand how the contract could improve their lives in meaningful ways. We’ve done this through our bargaining survey, visits to department meetings, thematic meetings, and one-on-one meetings with me or Kyle Morrison, BUFA’s Organizing and Mobilization Officer. Through this process, we can say that our mandate truly reflects the priorities of our members.
Since October your Contract Action Team has been hard at work getting us ready to bargain with our employer. Your CAT is about 50 of your colleagues who have volunteered some of their time to help us secure a better contract and a better Brock. Many of you have seen emails from your CAT representative informing you about our actions so far, including our bargaining survey, Special General Membership Meeting, and most recently our poster campaign. While we have some amazing people on the CAT, we are still looking to grow our network. CAT meets once or twice a month virtually for crisp 30-minute meetings. Most of the job is emailing/calling/texting your co-workers about current and upcoming events and actions.As bargaining begins in the Spring, we may have to gather rapid feedback from the membership and the CAT will be vital to get this feedback to give to our Negotiating Team. If you are interested in joining the CAT, please email ([email protected]) to be added to the list.
Our next event will be the end of term BBQ on April 23rd at 12:00 p.m. in the Pond Inlet. We are hoping that everyone will come out in a show of solidarity as we celebrate another successful end of term. Bring your appetite and a friend. This event will also give you a chance to meet your fellow CAT representatives and Negotiating Team members in person.
OCUFA UPDATES
by Laurie Morrison, Communications Director
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Province Announces New Funding
On February 12, 2026, the Ontario Government announced new funding ($6.4 billion) to Ontario colleges and universities. This comes amidst ongoing financial distress* facing Ontario universities and urgent calls from Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) and Council of Ontario Universities (COU) for sustainable and reliable funding. The outline below describes what might be called a shell game. Keep your eye on the shell with the money!
70,000 New Funded Student Seats
This is a welcome investment as the number of government-funded seats has been far below the actual number of students seeking a university education. Indeed, the demand from secondary school students for a university education now exceeds 2003 double cohort levels. https://www.ouac.on.ca/statistics/
Tuition Cap Lifted
The province both froze tuition and reduced tuition fees by 10% in 2019 without increasing funding thus creating a year-over-year gap in revenue. Students have benefited from this reduced financial burden however, the quality of their education has suffered as universities have needed to make year after year cuts to keep up with rising costs. Starting September 2026, for three academic years, tuition increases of a maximum 2% are allowed, after which any increase is based on the average rate of inflation or 2%, whichever is lower. While this is welcome relief for universities, it places greater financial burden on students.
Per Student Funding Increase
The 6% increase of provincial funding per student still leaves Ontario far below the national average. Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) estimates that Ontario institutions would need a 13.5% increase over each year for five years to reach the national average. In addition, Ontario receives $6,500 less per full-time-equivalent (FTE) than the national average.
OSAP
Here’s where the shell game plays out. The government has flipped the formula for student grants and loans. Whereas grants previously accounted for the vast majority of OSAP money available, this announcement flips the ratio so that loans account for 75% leaving only 25% for grants. The shell with grant money disappears and reappears under the shell that increases students’ seats and per FTE funding. It’s not new money. It’s money that students were receiving, and they bear the brunt of the government’s sleight of hand attempt.
Summary
Budgets are choices. There is money for education when it is valued. When we commit to ensuring that Ontarians have access to good quality education money is found and our society thrives and is richer for it. Taken together, the total amount of $6.4 billion from the province comes from tuition increases and fund formerly allocated to student grants. Let’s be very clear: a good chunk of this “new” money is coming from students.
The Provincial announcement is a lifeline for Ontario’s PSE but we should be clear-eyed that while this is significant, it still falls very short of what is needed to sustain universities and moreover see them thrive. Ontario still remains in last place nationally, in terms of government funding of the university sector. How much of the funding (outside of student tuition) that Brock will receive is unknown. We hope that our Administration will invest in teaching and working conditions that in turn improves the quality of education for our students, given that our students will be paying the price for years to come.
* Doug Ford scores high with voter confidence in his ability to handle a crisis. For that reason, OCUFA recommends avoiding the term crisis when describing the financial situation in PSE. It is after all, is a manufactured crisis, a crisis?
2026 BUFA GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
Each year, BUFA awards $1,000 scholarships to five undergraduate and two graduate students. These BUFA awards recognize excellence in academic achievements, as well as significant and on-going dedication to community service.
Download and complete the application form, email to [email protected] with a copy of your transcript or a screenshot of your grades from the portal.
Since 2014, BUFA has offered awards to students who have a minimum average of 80% and who show commitment to community service. Awards are $1,000 each. Five scholarships are awarded to undergraduate students and two to graduate students. These awards will be made to two current graduate students who have completed as least one semester of graduate study with a minimum average of 80% and whose community service focuses on equity and social justice issues. Applicants will be required to provide a one-page outline (approximately 500 words), giving evidence of their commitment to community service focusing on equity or social justice issues. Applicants are also required to submit a statement of their grades, with a copy of your transcript or screenshot from the portal.
The graduate awards will be administered by BUFA. Applications for the undergraduate awards are due later in the spring and are made through the University’s OneApp System.