Doing more with Less: BC Budget 2026
February 19, 2026
BC’s Budget 2026 presents itself as protecting essential services and supporting economic growth. At the same time, the province’s fiscal plan continues to rely on restraint measures across the public sector, including plans to reduce approximately 15,000 positions through attrition and restructuring. While described as efficiency measures, these reductions raise real concerns about workload pressures, service capacity, and the long-term sustainability of public institutions.
The expectation that services can be maintained while staffing levels decline deserves scrutiny. Across the public sector, workers are being asked to deliver high-quality services in increasingly constrained environments. Post-secondary is not immune from these pressures, and we have seen the real impacts on our members, which require attention from the Government.
While the overall post-secondary operating investment appears largely status quo, this does not represent meaningful reinvestment in a system already strained by years of underfunding and recent federal immigration policy changes. Institutions across BC have experienced program suspensions, campus restructuring, and staffing reductions. Budget 2026 does not introduce new stabilization funding to address these pressures.
The budget continues to emphasize workforce development, infrastructure expansion, and closer alignment of institutional programming with labour-market priorities. Approximately $4.4 billion in capital investments over three years largely reflects previously announced projects. These investments are framed as responses to skills shortages in areas such as health care, engineering, geology, aerospace, and computer science — fields in which BCIT faculty and staff are central contributors.
However, capital investments are not matched by proportional increases in stable operating funding for instructional, academic, and support staff. Expanding facilities without strengthening the workforce required to operate them risks placing additional strain on faculty and staff.
When operating budgets are constrained, institutions often turn to temporary or contract employment models, increased workloads, and program uncertainty.
If post-secondary institutions are to serve as engines of economic growth and workforce development, they require more than capital infrastructure. They require stable, well-supported faculty and staff. FSA members are directly connected to the industries and sectors the province is prioritizing. Ensuring our members have reasonable workloads, stable employment, and adequate institutional support is not a secondary concern, it is foundational to delivering on the government’s own objectives.
Budget 2026 positions post-secondary education as central to BC’s labour-market strategy. It must now be matched with policies that protect the people who deliver that education.
FSA members continue to have tools and strategies available to strengthen working and learning conditions at BCIT:
- Enhance collegial governance and exercise Departmental rights provided under the Collective Agreement.
- Stay informed about, and when appropriate use, Layoff Avoidance measures and other member protections.
- Stand together across departments to pursue constructive solutions and resist approaches that undermine stable working conditions.
Contact your Member Engagement Officer to learn more about these measures.
In a period of fiscal restraint and sector review, vigilance and solidarity are essential. By staying informed, engaged, and united, FSA members can ensure that BCIT’s future reflects both the needs of its students and the realities faced by the faculty and staff who serve them.
Colin Jones
FSA President &
Chief Negotiator
and
Shannon Kelly
FSA Vice President