Even with the deficit shrinking on paper, Queen’s admin suggests the era of belt-tightening isn’t over.
On May. 9, the Board of Trustees approved the 2025-26 operating budget, simultaneously signing off on a projected $26.4 million deficit. Since the budget was passed, a new $3 million deficit projection was presented to the Board on Dec. 12 by Vice-Principal (Finance and Administration) Donna Janiec in her report titled “Financial Projections as of September 30, 2025.”
The report identifies three primary factors contributing to the decrease: unspent Central and Transition Fund allocations, lower-than-budgeted deficits within faculties and schools, and a reduction in shared services expenditures.
In an interview with The Journal, Janiec outlined how the initial budget was determined and how it was narrowed by more than $20 million over the course of the fiscal year. She explained the original $26.4 million deficit reflected a “conservative” budgeting process that assumed planned spending would proceed as projected, before updated revenue figures and in-year adjustments were accounted for.
“The budgets are all set in one context. And then as you go through the year, things change. Obviously, it’s only a budget, it’s a plan,” Janiec said.
According to Janiec, one of the most consequential shifts occurred just before the Board approved the budget, when Queen’s was notified that it would receive almost $16 million in new STEM funding from the provincial government. This funding hadn’t been anticipated when the deficit was initially projected.
READ MORE: $15.9 million in new provincial funding for STEM programs
The money was allocated to different STEM, medicine, and nursing departments, helping offset faculty budget costs, according to the September report.
“They [faculties] wouldn’t have planned to increase their expenditures because they weren’t expecting that money. And so that would have helped reduce their deficits,” Janiec said.
The report also points to unspent Central and Transition Fund allocations as a key factor in the improved outlook. Janiec said $18.9 million was allocated to the Transition Fund to support restructuring efforts and cost-reduction initiatives, including faculty early-retirement programs.
READ MORE: Queen’s faculty alarmed by expanding Transition Fund
The full allocation wasn’t spent this year, leaving an additional $9.1 million in the fund for future use. Janiec explained that because the budget assumed the full $18.9 million would be spent, but it wasn’t, the additional funds contributed to the lower deficit.
Additionally, Janiec spoke to the lower-than-budgeted spending in shared services—the administrative units outside faculties—such as human resources and the principal’s office.
She attributed the $6.2 million in shared service savings to strategies such as deferring “big” multi-year IT projects.
Janiec then explained that the projects would still be undertaken in the future, but because Queen’s reports on a cash basis, expenses only appear in the budget when funds are spent, meaning the deferred expenditures reduced the projected deficit.
For now, the reduced deficit reflects in-year adjustments and additional funding, but according to Janiec, the University’s broader financial struggles remain, and will still require the university to focus on cost reductions and constraints for what she predicts to be the next several years.
“If we have no additional revenue, we have to look at constraints and how we’re going to cut expenses,” she claimed.
She cited ongoing government cuts and decisions, including caps on international students and limited provincial funding for domestic enrolment growth, as reasons the school remains under financial pressure.
The 2026–27 budget process is underway, with preliminary projections heading to the Finance Committee in March and to the Board for approval in May.
Tags
Board of Trustees, Donna Janiec, Queen's Deficit
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