Coast Mountain College is moving ahead with a major restructuring plan after a sharp drop in international student enrolment.
The decline stems from changes introduced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which have made CMTN’s programs less attractive to international applicants. New international registrations are now less than 10 per cent of what they were in 2023. Without international tuition revenue, the college faces a $4 million shortfall that must be addressed to balance its budget by 2026.
CMTN has been open with staff about the challenges since February 2025. Over the summer, union and management representatives met to explore cost-saving strategies. Some cuts have already been made: 17 per cent of management positions were eliminated, travel and overtime have been reduced, vacancies left unfilled, and prices adjusted for food services and student housing. While these measures helped, they are not enough to close the gap.
CMTN’s Executive Director of External Relations, Heather Bastin, said the loss of international tuition has created a funding hole that temporary fixes can’t cover. For years, those fees supported additional services, staff, and programs beyond the core budget. Now, the college must scale back.
“We have been, for a number of years, supplementing our operating budget with added tuition from international students. With that disappearing from our budget now, we have to operate within our standard operating budget.”
To ease the transition, CMTN is introducing a canvassing period from September 8 to 19. During that time, unionized staff can apply for early retirement or voluntary departure incentives. Bastin said the goal is to give staff who were already considering a transition the chance to step forward, reducing the number of layoffs that may be required.
“The goal is to minimize the number of involuntary layoffs. It would be wonderful if we could mitigate all the layoffs, but I don’t see that being likely.”
Even with these incentives, layoffs are still expected in the future. Bastin said staff have been aware of the situation since February, but acknowledged that cuts remain difficult. She stressed that student experience will remain the top priority as decisions are made.
“Offering high-quality education is our mandate, and it’s the most important thing to us. We’re looking at what areas can be reduced so that we impact students as little as possible.”
The Board of Governors has also authorized the sale of two real-estate assets, one in Kitimat and one in Houston. Both properties have been leased for years, but Bastin said changes to provincial rules now allow the college to sell them outright. She added that the Kitimat building requires costly repairs, making it more practical to sell than maintain.
“Up until the fall of 2024, we weren’t actually allowed to sell real estate. Now we are able to work with the Ministry of Infrastructure to organize the sale of assets within the government. The Kitamat building in particular is needing some repairs at this time, and so it makes sense for us to sell it rather than undertake expensive repairs to a building that we’re not using for educational purposes.”
The sales are expected to be finalized before April 2027. The proceeds will go into CMTN’s retained earnings account, which can be used for approved capital projects. Bastin said the account also needs to be replenished after covering retirement and departure incentives.
“The money from the sales will go into our retained earnings account, which can be used for approved capital projects. For example, maybe one of our buildings needs a new roof, and so we can access that reserve earnings account to do those kinds of repairs in the future.”
Even without college-owned buildings in Kitimat and Houston, CMTN said it will not step back from those communities. Programs will continue through local partnerships, mobile training units, and online learning. Bastin said this approach adds flexibility while maintaining access to education.
“We’ve been offering programs through school district partnerships, partnerships with local First Nations groups, mobile training units, and online training as well.”
CMTN said its goal is long-term sustainability and ensuring it can continue delivering education across northwest BC.
