Nearly half a million dollars in costs from the commissioners offices doesn’t necessarily indicate a very successful portfolio.
The AMS is projecting a $514,412 deficit in 2025-26, marking a roughly 108 per cent increase from last year’s finalized deficit of $247,526. The AMS described this deficit as an “intentional” investment in the AMS’s future and growth. Despite the alleged investment, the AMS would be better off operating as a functional business.
The bottom line is that a $600,552 deficit in the offices portfolio doesn’t translate to an improved student experience—when much of the student body doesn’t even know what the AMS does. Meanwhile, the AMS offices have seen a 15.7 per cent increase in personnel costs with the addition of two new permanent staff, according to the budget. While the consolidated budget predicts an $86,141 surplus in services, this result is entirely unlikely. Services like Common Ground Coffeehouse are expected to turn a profit, when the coffeehouse has rarely ever broken even, reporting a $51,160 deficit in 2023 and only barely covering personnel costs from 2024-25. Opening another coffee shop in the JDUC with the same business model doesn’t seem like a responsible business choice.
Meanwhile, the Queen’s Pub’s revenue was calculated with an average receipt price of $21 and multiplied by an expected full seating at lunch and dinner, according to a recent interview with The Journal. Any student who’s walked by the JDUC in the past six months can attest that a full seating at the Pub is rare, even in the evenings and over the weekend. The fact that the Pub’s atmosphere feels more classroom than social environment, and lack of presence on campus over the past four years, shouldn’t lead anyone to believe the establishment will turn a profit. It’s extremely rare for restaurants to become profitable in the early stages, around 60 per cent will close their doors in the first year.
Even if The Pub were profitable, it certainly wouldn’t justify the $221,869 fraction of the 2024-25 deficit that its building and opening costs required.
Ultimately, AMS services don’t operate as functional business, especially not ones functional enough to make up the only profitable portfolio in the 2025-26 budget. Though the AMS is intended to offer valuable opportunities to students, year-over-year managerial turnover, and frequent positional vacancies don’t make for a successful business model.
The AMS justifies some of the costs as required for their move to the JDUC, but the upper floor offices are just as confusing and inaccessible as their temporary offices were in the Rideau and LaSalle buildings. On the upper floors, and mostly inaccessible without a key fob, the new and allegedly improved offices aren’t helping the AMS’s lack of visibility amongst the student body.
The AMS was confident moving would increase profitability for Society 58 (formerly Tricolour outlet), however, the new location has only marginally increased visibility for the brand, while the rebrand makes the store less noticeable to students.
Year after year, the AMS tries to justify their mounting budget deficit, while students remain unaware of their operations, yet financially supporting a team that cant seem to balance a budget. The AMS needs to make better business decisions if they want to be seen as a viable leadership body.
Over inflating the services budget can’t disguise the mounting deficit in the office’s portfolio, mostly due to jobs students don’t see, or can’t understand. The AMS needs to stop seeing themselves a vessel for student experience and recognize their need to turn a profit to remain viable.
—Journal Editorial Board
Tags
AMS, AMS offices, Budget, deficit
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