Reaction is coming in to Thursday’s release of the auditor general’s report on the insolvency at Laurentian University.
Bonnie Lysyk’s report concluded that unsustainable capital spending created a growing debt problem at LU that administrators failed to deal with.
And when finances reached a crisis, the school’s leadership chose insolvency, Lysyk said, rather than be transparent with staff and the province, which offered the university funds to see it through a restructuring.
Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas said parts of the report were hard to read.
“But I fully know that we can not change the past and that those bad decisions led to all of the hardship that our community had to go through,” Gélinas said.
“They need to rebuild the university, they need to rebuild the courses and classes that are available there, to rebuild their facility, but they also need to rebuild the trust that people have in Laurentian University.”
The Laurentian University Faculty Association said transparency must the norm moving forward.
“The auditor general’s report clearly shows that this crisis could have — and should have been avoided,” LUFA president Fabrice Colin said in a news release.
“There is simply no excuse for the Laurentian administration’s dubious and irresponsible decision-making, which has led to needless cuts and suffering. Students, staff, and faculty deserve better.”
Colin said it has been a “dark time” since the school declared insolvency, particularly since faculty were blamed for the financial crisis.
“It is shameful that the university administration has spent so much effort ignoring, scapegoating, and gaslighting faculty throughout this process,” he said.
“The Laurentian administration must heed this report and fundamentally change its culture to work with faculty to build a more transparent, democratic, and inclusive model of shared governance.”
Tom Fenske, of the Laurentian University Staff Union, said former administrators need to be held to account.
"Two very big parts of the report are alarming, we didn't need to go into CCAA – that's clear from the report," Fenske said.
"Quite frankly the leadership, at specific times of (former president) Dominic Giroux, (former vice-presidents of administration) Carol McAuley and Lorella Hayes – these people and what they've done, we know now how deeply disturbing they ran our finances."
Ross Romano, the Sault MPP who was minister of colleges and universities when LU declared insolvency, released this statement Thursday:
"I believe the auditor general's report speaks for itself. It confirms what we have been saying throughout these past few years, namely that the financial challenges at Laurentian began long before our government was formed in 2018 and that our government was in no way responsible for these CCAA proceedings nor the circumstances that brought them on.
"I'm ultimately glad that we were able to help Laurentian navigate through these struggles. It will be a stronger institution as a result and the people of Sudbury and northern Ontario will benefit, because Laurentian University is of critical importance to our region and our province."
In a news release, Laurentian said it “embraces” the auditor’s recommendations.
“We respect the auditor general’s mandate and the work she undertook at the request of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to investigate how Laurentian became insolvent,” Jeff Bangs, chair of Laurentian University board of governors, is quoted as saying in the release.
“It is now incumbent on us to learn from her advice and, most importantly, accept and implement each of her recommendations ... The university has a strong foundation to make much-needed changes and ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated.”
LU is expected to emerge from insolvency Nov. 30 and Bangs said they are looking forward to the future.
“We are committed to beginning the university’s next chapter on a solid financial footing and ushering in a new era of accountability,” Bangs added.
“The students, staff and faculty of Laurentian deserve nothing less.”
--With contributions from Molly Frommer and Ian Campbell
