McGill University announces layoff of about 100 employees

McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, says it will be forced to lay off 99 employees to address a CA$45 million (US$31 million) operating deficit. In February, the institution announced that it would need to reduce its workforce by around 350 to 500 workers. At the time, McGill said that it had hoped it would be able to achieve this through attrition but that now, the layoffs were “unavoidable”, writes Marisela Amador for CTV News and the Canadian Press.

In an internal memo to university staff obtained by CTV News, McGill noted that its workforce accounts for approximately 80% of its operating expenses and that it had informed Ministre de l’Emploi et de la solidarité sociale about the university-wide layoffs.

McGill has argued that the cuts are in part due to the Quebec government’s decision to increase tuition fees for out-of-province students and to claw back enrolment revenue.
Full report on the CTV News site