News Brief: KSA in $2-million deficit in 2025, proposes 2026 draft budget

The Kwantlen Student Association proposed its 2026 draft budget during a council meeting on Jan. 29, while more than $2 million over budget in 2025.

The KSA’s highest expenses in 2025 were in wages and benefits and legal and professional fees.

The 2026 proposed budget did not include the student association’s 2025 spending against the proposed amounts. The proposal was included under the finance committee’s report during the meeting.

“So, finance hasn’t met and this budget hasn’t come from the [Vice-President] Finance, but it’s under the finance committee report?” KSA Records Coordinator and Archivist John O’Brian wrote in the meeting’s Microsoft Teams chat. 

In the proposed budget, the KSA allocated $500,000 to wages and benefits for elected officials. The association spent $947,848 in wages and benefits in 2025, as per its December financial statement — more than $200,000 over budget.

The proposed wages for KSA staff are $800,000, and the association spent $1,561,836 on staff wages last year — almost double the budgeted amount.

Legal fees, or lawyer bills, which were previously called legal and professional fees, were allocated $160,000. The KSA spent $788,734 in legal fees last year and had originally budgeted $200,000. Since 2023, the KSA has budgeted at least $200,000 for legal fees.

The authority for legal fees was also changed from the executive director and KSA president to include the entire executive committee. This means the entire committee — the president, associate president, and vice-presidents of student life, finance and operations, university affairs, and external affairs — can approve legal fees funding.

“Changes to legal fees were required due to increased expenditures. As the 2025–2026 fiscal year is projected to be in deficit, reserves from the 2026–2027 fiscal year will be utilized to address and offset this shortfall,” Vice-President Finance and Operations Manmeet Kaur wrote in her report. 

Kaur added that the proposed budget factors in enrolment projections for the upcoming year, which sit at an estimated 10.35-per-cent decrease from the 2025 enrolment year.

“These measures have been considered carefully to maintain financial stability while continuing to support core services,” she wrote.  

The KSA’s events budget will also be cut almost a third from its current $250,000 to just $95,000. 

In 2025, the association spent $751,779 on KSA events — more than $500,000 of what was budgeted. The KSA events authority will now fall to the executive committee instead of the executive director. 

The association has allocated $141,317 to lobbying efforts in the 2026 proposed budget. Last year, the KSA spent $108,143 on lobbying.

Peer Support was allocated $97,156. It reported a $24,038 deficit last year and spent a total of $121,866.

Other changes to the budget are to Grassroots Cafe. The proposed budget lists Grassroots’ revenue at $300,000. In 2025, Grassroots generated $148,622 in revenue — almost $300,000 below its planned revenue of $435,000.

The budget was approved with a two-thirds majority of the council. Six members of council were in attendance.

The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27 at 1:00 pm. Interested students can email info@kusa.ca to join the meeting.