KSA AGM fails to meet quorum, financial report shows more than $10 million spending

The Kwantlen Student Association presented its audited financial statements and executive reports at its annual general meeting (AGM) on March 27 at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey Conference Centre. 

Former vice-president (VP) student life Ishant Goyal, President and VP University Affairs Gurdit Singh, Associate President Anmol Bansal, and Executive Director Timothii Raganvan were in attendance. Speaker of Council Amandeep Kaur Brar chaired the AGM, and Records Coordinator and Archivist John O’Brian took meeting minutes. 

The AGM started around 30 minutes after the scheduled time of 10:00 am. Just 27 students were in attendance when the meeting began. Students could not vote on the Indigenous fee waiver resolution, which needed a quorum of 60 members to be approved.

The waiver would remove all KSA fees, except U-Pass and the extended health and dental plan, for incoming and current KPU students who are members of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt, and Kwikwetlem First Nations — the seven nations KPU’s campuses reside on.

The resolution has been on the agenda for the last two years — in 2024 the meeting ended early, and in 2025 there was also no quorum.

KSA Financial Controller Rolando Navarro presented the association’s audited financial statement, and Ragavan gave his report.

Ragavan said the association has operated within a “challenging environment” in the last year due to constraints like declining international student enrolment, economic uncertainty, and operational demands.

“Over the past year, we have worked to respond not only to external pressure, but also over the internal challenges.”

Ragavan added the association has maintained essential services and expanded accessibility, and strengthened its financial sustainability and governing practices.

In advocacy and lobbying, Ragavan said the KSA’s work was marked with strong engagement and action. This involved participation in the Canadian Federation of Students’ lobbying efforts to advocate for enhanced support and increased funding for Indigenous students, reducing the international student fee cap, expanding work and health-care services for international students, and investing into student housing.

He said the association expanded outreach through social media in the past year, introduced scholarships for Black and Indigenous students, helped more than 200 students through the REBOOT computer repair program, and distributed food produce through its sustainability initiatives.

“Over the financial year, we saw a decline in total assets and revenue, largely due to lower enrolment and reduced investment returns. At the same time, expenditures increased, particularly student programming and services,” Ragavan said. “It is clear that we must take action.”

He said the KSA will focus on diversifying revenue, strengthening financial oversight, and implementing cost-control measures for long-term sustainability.

This past year, he said there was a return of events and programming on campus, including cultural celebrations for Vaisakhi and Diwali, as well as Bollywood Night and various parties throughout the year. The KSA’s total spending on events was nearly $1.2 million in 2025, according to its audited financial statements.

“Looking ahead, our focus will be on sustainability, strong governance, and continued innovation, but, most importantly, we remain committed to our students.”

Goyal said his report is submitted in the “spirit of accountability,” adding that public service invites scrutiny and he has taken his shortcomings seriously throughout his term.

The student life portfolio supported more than 130 club initiatives, he said, and more than $135,000 was invested in student-led programming.

He also said the KSA served 1,300 food bank users and provided 2,438 discounted gym passes, 650 locker rentals, and 217 tax filings. The KSA also distributed more than 800 silver coins and over 700 Diwali hampers in the last year.

Goyal added that he connected with club executives and recognized them for their work through the Garden of Gratitude event, which aimed to thank club leadership for their volunteer work.

Goyal’s report also noted “100K+ documented student benefit.” KPU has just over 15,000 students, as per the KSA’s 2026 general election results.

The report also included a breakdown of the KSA’s student services sold and offered over the past year, such as Student Price Cards, locks, movie tickets, the food bank, locker rentals, tax filing, and lab coat rentals. In terms of KSA events, the highest number were organized in September last year.

The association partnered and collaborated with St. John Ambulance for student discounts on Level 1 first aid, KPU Sport & Recreation for badminton rentals, and Canadian Blood Services for blood drives.

In his report, Singh said he worked on addressing internal changes within the KSA after being appointed VP university affairs last December.

“My initial focus was on ongoing legal matters and working collaboratively with legal counsel and the executive team to move toward appropriate resolutions.”

After being appointed president in January, Singh said he worked on continuing KSA operations during a “challenging period” and strengthening the student union’s accountability and stability.

Since the B.C. Ministry of Finance’s March 13 order, Singh said the student union has been working to organize the required information to work with the government once the investigation begins.

“A key priority has been ensuring that the student services remain fully operational and unaffected. Despite ongoing challenges, we have [taken] the deliberate steps to maintain the service deliveries for students and uphold responsibilities of the organization,” he said.

Audited financial statement

The association reported $8.5 million in revenue in 2025, down from $9.7 million in 2024. The decrease was largely driven by lower student fee revenue due to the decline in international enrolment and a drop in investment income.

The KSA collected $7.7 million from student fees in 2025, compared to $8.4 million the previous year. Investment income was cut in half from its $1 million generated in 2024.

Despite the drop in revenue, the KSA’s expenses increased to $10.4 million in 2025 — nearly $2 million higher than the previous year.

The association’s largest expenditures were in activities, wages and benefits, professional, and student health and dental premiums.

Activities totaled $3 million from 2024’s $1.9 million. Activities, which includes the KSA’s clubs and events budget, was nearly $400,000 over budget in 2025.

“We can readily see that there seems to be a disproportionate share of activities in the clubs and events [budget] over the other funds,” Navarro said. “Fifty-two per cent of the total $2.3 million was spent on clubs and events activities. Meanwhile, 43 per cent of activities was funded from the MultiPass [fund].”

The financial statements report that the association spent $851,800 on KSA-led events — four times the amount spent in 2024. Including development and retreats, new student orientation, Welcome Week events, and others, the KSA spent $1.2 million on events.

Executive and representative stipends were about $730,000 in 2025 compared to $356,000 the previous year.

“Our areas of concern in this statement of operations would be administrative and governance costs, which, when combined, make up 38 per cent of the total expenditures,” Navarro added.

He said this includes elections, professional and legal staff, wages and benefits, elected officials, and stipends.

The VP portfolios collected $98,947 for student life, $88,412 for external, $85,739 for university affairs, and $82,514 for finance and operations. Last year, the highest paid executive earned $55,638.

The 2025-26 executive committee took office in April last year, and the amounts paid in stipends for the different executive roles include everyone who may have assumed a given VP position during the 2024-25 term.

Two executives collected an additional $192,279 for “services rendered in multiple capacities during the year.”

Executive and representative stipends also included $19,114 paid to a former KSA council member for “services provided.” The same former council member’s company was paid $33,160 for T-shirts. In 2024, the same individual made a claim against the KSA for “breach of contract and privacy,” which was settled for $42,750.

The KSA paid 11 contractors or employees $75,000 or more in 2025, totaling $1.3 million. In 2024, eight employees were paid $75,000 or more.

Ragavan said he was “not going to comment” whether he was one of the 11 employees.

“Stay tuned, everyone,” Navarro said at the end of his report. “There’s so much at stake for ensuring the future sustainability of your student association.”

Question period

During question period, the KSA heard concerns and took questions from students on topics including accountability, spending, accessible and transparent communication, and service offerings, among other areas.

“I really would like to re-emphasize the point brought up last year at the AGM that students are watching you, and this administration and the former administration should be ashamed, embarrassed, and worried,” KPU student Madelene Gamage said.

Regarding the nine vacant positions on the 2026-27 council, Ragavan said that the association will be holding a byelection either in August or September and that it has been discussing this with KPU.

“I think we should really rush that byelection to make sure people’s voices are actually being heard and that all of the campuses are represented,” said Elysia Ritchotte, the Indigenous student representative for the 2026-27 council term.

“As someone who goes to the Richmond campus primarily, we get none of the resources that you guys are providing to the students. Everything happens on the Surrey campus. We don’t see very much happening in Richmond.”

On the VP student life pay being higher than any other executive committee member in 2025 — and about $13,000 more than the president and VP university affairs — Goyal, who held the position from April 2025 until late February this year, said “the portfolio gets paid based on multiple positions.”

Goyal added that since graduating last June, he did not have any other full-time job and was working on campus for the KSA almost everyday, focusing on clubs and events.

Regarding the KSA’s events spending jumping by almost $650,000 from 2024 to 2025, Goyal said the reason was that the membership requested that they wanted to see more events and the KSA’s financial situation was communicated to them.

“Membership requests take precedence over the other factor of the money [we’re] receiving,” he said.

President and VP University Affairs Gurdit Singh, who was elected to the next KSA council, said he doesn’t think he’s attended a council meeting in person.

“I was a full-time student all the time,” Singh said. “I will look into it. If I would be … available for some of the meetings, I would definitely do [them] in person,” Singh said.

Reflecting on the 2025 council’s term, Singh said “there’s always room for improvements,” adding the first focus for the next council will be cooperating with the B.C. Ministry of Finance investigation into the KSA, which was launched on March 13.

On the KSA’s student union building, which has collected $11,136,256 in funding, Ragavan said it is something the association is still looking into.

“We want to make it accessible for all students through all campuses. So finding a space that’s equally accessible is what we’re currently facing with our timeline.”

The meeting adjourned at 1:16 pm. Speaker of Council Amandeep Kaur Brar said Ragavan spoke with KPU’s facilities department, which notified him that the conference centre was booked for an event at 7:00 pm, but setup needed to be done soon.