Support staff laid off by Conestoga College

Days after nearly 200 full-time Conestoga College faculty members were given layoff notices, support staff are next. CTV’s Colton Wiens has the details.

Just days after almost 200 full-time Conestoga College employees were laid off, CTV News Kitchener has learned even more people who had been working at the school have also been given their walking papers.

Conestoga College support staff learned they were being laid off on Thursday. CTV News Kitchener learned 197 people were laid off.

“I am deeply angered by the decision made by Dr. John Tibbits and senior leadership to send notices of layoff and reassignment during the holiday season,” wrote Vikki Poirier, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 238, in an email to members.

“Over the past six months, both local unions have been actively engaging with college leadership, asking questions and presenting numerous alternative proposals. We have highlighted alternative ways the college could save money and proposed strategies to increase revenue. We have considered the Collective Agreement, exploring alternatives for maintaining employment stability. Unfortunately, our suggestions were largely ignored.”

‘These cuts don’t make sense’

In an interview with CTV News later that day, she shared her frustrations.

“I, myself, as a college employee, I am angry. I’m angry that these cuts don’t make sense,” Poirier said. “As the president [of OPSEU Local 238] I’m disappointed as well as angry for our members.”

Poirier was one of the employees who received a layoff notice on Thursday.

“These are people, it’s before Christmas, and they just lay them all off with no consideration or understanding of how this will impact people other than the fact that it gets it done before the fiscal end of year,” she said.

In an emailed statement to CTV News on Thursday, Conestoga College said they had given the support staff union a notice of layoff on Dec. 3, ahead of the formal layoff notices going out on Thursday.

“These difficult but necessary decisions are not taken lightly and reflect our responsibility to align resources and ensure long-term sustainability,” the statement said.

One of the people who has been laid off is Ian Jenkins. He said after nearly three years of teaching at Conestoga College, he received an email around 10 a.m. Thursday from the school’s human resources department. The email asked him to join a virtual meeting at 2:30 p.m.

“I was not allowed to have my camera on. I was not allowed to have my microphone on. Somebody read from a script saying that my position was being terminated,” Jenkins told CTV News.

Jenkins said he had a feeling the layoffs were coming after 180 support staff were laid off in April.

“[It would have been] less stressful if they had just sent me a video email first thing in the morning at 10 a.m. as opposed to making me wait four-and-a-half hours to basically have a video email anyway,” he said.

‘Fear for the college itself’

Jenkins had been working as an instrumentation specialist in the health and life sciences division, specializing in preparing analytical chemistry instruments and teaching students how to use them.

He said an entire course centered around those instruments is set to start in January, and now he worries about how the layoffs will impact those students.

“I fear that the amount of education and hands-on experience that the students are going to get is going to be lacking,” Jenkins said. “I also fear for the college itself. I think that people are doing this as a money game, and they don’t see the downward spiral that they are putting themselves into.”

For months, Conestoga College officials have said they are facing financial hardships and blamed declining international enrolment for the troubles.

This week, after 181 full-time faculty members were given layoff notices on Tuesday, Conestoga College told CTV News it comes down to finances. They reiterated that stance in their statement on Thursday.

“At Conestoga, international enrolment dropped nearly 80 per cent in 2025 compared to 2023. Winter 2026 total enrolment is projected at just over 15,000 students – down from nearly 29,000 in winter 2025 and approximately 43,000 in 2024," it read.

“Without significant reductions in operating costs, the college faces a fiscal deficit. To achieve a balanced budget, we must align our resources with the reality that we have lost thousands of international students and will likely continue to be impacted, given the recent announcement of further reductions to international student caps for 2026-2028. Simply put, we no longer require the same complement of faculty, staff and administrators as in 2024,” the statement continued.

Conestoga sees ‘largest decline’

The federal government announced in early 2024 it was slashing study permits for international students, and Ontario’s allotment was reduced by almost half. Schools were told applications could not exceed 2023 permit levels, and international permits must be less than 55 per cent of the school’s first-year domestic enrolment.

The province specifically called out Conestoga College, stating it would see the “largest decline.” That was not surprising, since the school had one of the largest international student populations in the province.

In a report sent to students and staff on July 28, Conestoga College said 8,584 international students were enrolled in its 2025 spring semester. That marked a 62 per cent drop from the year before, when it totaled 22,633.

Despite the drop in international enrolment, the school reported a surplus of more than $121 million for the fiscal year ending on March 31. That still represented a significant decrease from the $252 million surplus from the previous year.

Conestoga College said revenue from tuition dropped to $563 million, $119 million less than it reported in 2024, while it spent $436 million on salaries and benefits, an increase of $37 million from the year before.

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