62 more employees laid off as Mohawk College eliminates 72 positions | CBC News
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Mohawk College has laid off 62 full-time employees and eliminated 10 vacant positions, according to a spokesperson for the college.
Sean Coffey told CBC Hamilton on Friday that most of those reductions were within the administrative and support staff groups, with impacts relatively evenly distributed between those areas.
“A small number of faculty positions were also affected,” Coffey said, adding that “no academic program cancellations were announced as part of these changes.”
Mohawk College announced in December that it was offering a “voluntary exit option” to select full-time staff. That announcement came one year after hundreds of employees were laid off.
The college began cutting jobs and more than a dozen programs after projecting a $50 million deficit in the fall of 2024.
Mohawk’s president Paul Armstrong said previously that a reduction in the number of international students was partly to blame for the deficit.
The federal government plans to admit only 155,000 international students to the country this year, according to groups who track the file.
That represents half of the 305,900 international student cap the government had planned for 2026, before it revised targets downward yet again in its latest report on immigration levels.
It lays out a plan to cut the number of temporary residents significantly, and to admit only 155,000 students this year, and 150,000 each in 2027 and 2028.
Restructuring now complete, college says
Regarding the elimination of the latest 72 positions, Coffey said these changes were needed “to align our workforce and operations with enrolment levels.”
He said based on current projections, the college does not expect further restructuring of this scale next year, marking the end of the restructuring period that began in late 2024.
“Our focus now is on stability and renewal,” Coffey said. “The college will continue to align programs and resources with workforce needs in the region, particularly in areas such as health, technology, climate action and the skilled trades.”