KSA spends $400K on council and staff wages in 2 months

Two months into the new year, the Kwantlen Student Association spent more than $400,000 on council and staff wages and benefits.

Council wages

The KSA spent $102,631 — 21 per cent of its budgeted amount for council wages and benefits.

Council wages and benefits are “unpredictable month-to-month” and vary depending on the number of council members, frequency of meetings, and meeting attendees, KSA Financial Controller Rolando Navarro wrote in an email statement to The Runner.

In January, council collected $59,825 and February’s total was $42,806. There are only seven members left on council.

Three of the seven councillors are current executive committee members: Gurdit Singh is president and vice–president (VP) university affairs, Rohit Uppal is the VP external affairs, and Anmol Bansal serves as associate president, a non-voting member of the committee.

At a Feb. 27 council meeting, council broke its regulations to remove Manmeet Kaur as VP finance and operations, and Ishant Goyal resigned as VP student life “due to health reasons.” 

Effective March 1, executive committee members are paid a biweekly stipend of $1,922.40 for a total of 80 hours of work. Previously, they were paid $24.03 per hour for at least 80 hours biweekly.

The associate president honorarium is $1,500 biweekly, an annual increase of $3,000 from its previous $12,000 per semester.

At a Feb. 20 council meeting, many meeting honorariums were decreased. All councillors are now paid $100 per regularly scheduled or special council meeting. 

Committee meeting honoraria also decreased. Committee chairs receive $150 each meeting, and committee members are paid $100 each meeting — both for a maximum of 10 meetings per semester.

On April 1, the 2026-27 council will begin its term with 17 of 28 elected representatives.

“I believe some elected positions were unfilled in the recent [KSA] General Election so Council wages and benefits may not necessarily increase after April 1,” Navarro wrote.

Staff wages

For staff wages and benefits in the operations budget, the KSA spent 39 per cent of its annual $800,000 budget in two months. January’s staff compensation was almost $140,000 and February’s was more than $170,000.

“More or less, monthly total[s] would not vary wildly except if there will be unforeseen staff resignations or new positions created,” Navarro wrote.

Navarro added staff wages and benefits are also dependent on seasonal hiring at Grassroots Cafe. However, Grassroots’ wages and benefits are a separate budget item.

If staff wages and benefits continue its current average monthly spend of about $155,000, the annual total will be nearly $1.9 million, more than $1 million over its budgeted amount.

KSA Executive Director Timothii Ragavan, the signing authority for council and staff wages, did not respond to The Runner before publication time.

Revenue

The KSA has collected four to five per cent of its revenue for all budgets — except for Multipass.

Navarro wrote that KPU remits most collected fees to the KSA in three months: about 20 per cent in April and 30 per cent in both August and December. 

“The rest of the months would range from less than 1 per cent to 5 per cent of the annual total KSA fees collected and remitted by KPU,” Navarro wrote.

Half of the association’s budgets are in a deficit due to low membership fees collected thus far.

“Multipass fees remitted by KPU to [the] KSA would be more evenly distributed, except during the summer months … when summer enrolment drops, during the year,” Navarro wrote.

The association also collects revenue from member services and Grassroots Cafe. For member services, the KSA has sold 25 per cent of its planned $50,000.

Grassroots expenses outnumber revenue three-fold. The KSA eatery has made $18,052, but its expenses total $60,681 — most of which are wages and benefits, totaling almost $50,000. Its cost of goods sold was $9,944. 

The association’s 2026 budget plans for Grassroots to profit by $2,000. 

If the cafe’s expenses continue the current average monthly spend of about $30,000, the annual total will be around $364,000 — about $66,000 more than the budgeted $298,000.

The KSA has not sold any Club 16 passes, having planned to sell $10,000 worth in 2026.