At a time when college centers for technology transfer (CCTT) are calling for better public funding to avoid having to lay off more qualified employees, the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, instead refers to the possibility of merging some of these establishments.
Quebec has 59 CCTTs, most of which are attached to CEGEPs and private colleges. Little known, these research centers play a major role in local economic development, carrying out more than 11,000 projects per year in conjunction with thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and various organizations. Furthermore, thousands of students are welcomed each year as interns in these centers.
However, after years of growth, the CCTTs have seen their finances weaken in recent years. A situation that these establishments attribute to the fact that expenses related to the salaries of their experts, as well as those dedicated to the maintenance of their cutting-edge equipment, are increasing more quickly than the funding they receive from the Quebec state. .
“We have a payroll that is increasing faster than our income,” explains to Duty the president and CEO of the CCTT network, Michel Lesage. According to data sent last December by the organization to the Minister of Finance, these research centers accumulated a deficit of $16.4 million between 2020 and 2023. 36% of these research centers were in deficit last year, to the point where some of them were forced to make layoffs this year.
This is the case of the CTT Group, one of the largest centers of its kind in Quebec, which had to lay off eight employees this year, in addition to reducing the working hours of four other workers. The center, based in Saint-Hyacinthe, now has 68 employees who must carry out the work that until recently 80 people did, underlines its president and CEO, Olivier Vermeersch.
The latter believes that it is particularly affected by the government’s funding model, which divides annual funding of around $25 million into equal shares between the 59 CCTTs. Thus, the share of the CTT Group’s turnover assumed by the State is around 5%, indicates Mr. Vermeersch. “It is impossible for us to work properly with such low funding,” argues the CEO, who expects to run “a significant deficit this year.”
“We find ourselves in a void and we don’t know where to turn,” sighs Nancy Déziel, the general director of CNETE, a CCTT in electrochemistry and environmental technologies attached to the Cégep de Shawinigan. The center recently had to lay off two technicians, and may have to lay off others if its financial situation remains fragile. “We don’t know how we’re going to get through this. »
Centers under threat
In this context, the CCTT network had proposed to Quebec, in anticipation of its most recent budget, to increase from 15% to 40% the share of the turnover of these research centers which would be assumed by the State. The network also proposed that the financing of its members be revised every three years to take into account inflation. But these requests went unheeded.
However, “it is certain that we are not in a model that is viable in the long term,” notes Michel Lesage, who fears the possible closure of certain centers, when they have finished eating into their financial reserves. to compensate for annual deficits. “It is not impossible that CCTTs will have to close,” also warns the president and CEO of the Fédération des cégeps, Bernard Tremblay, who also fears that the researchers who will be laid off from these centers will leave Quebec to take “international jobs”.
In an interview, Mr. Lesage urged Quebec to release “emergency aid” to “temporarily absorb” the financial needs of the CCTT. A request which found echo in the mouths of two elected representatives of the opposition in the National Assembly who pressed Minister Pascale Déry on Tuesday morning to provide more support to these establishments, at a time when the study of the budgetary appropriations of the Ministry of Higher Education.
“They have an extremely important role in supporting innovation,” underlined Liberal MP for Mont-Royal–Outremont Michelle Setlakwe. “And there, they are empty,” continued the elected official, who described the situation experienced by the CCTT as “bleeding”.
“We need this research in the college environment,” agreed the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, without however committing to increasing the funding offered to CCTTs by Quebec. Instead, she raised the possibility of reducing their number by merging some of these centers. “Are there any CCTTs that duplicate each other? » questioned the minister, who pleaded in favor of an analysis of the distribution of these centers in Quebec in order to ensure “using them in the right way in our regions”.
However, reducing the number of CCTTs would not solve the fundamental problem represented by their inadequate funding structure, replies Bernard Tremblay, who believes that Quebec should take the path of “increasing collegial research”, instead of “atrophy” it.
The Ministry of Higher Education, for its part, ensures, in an email to Duty, that he is working to find ways to better financially support the CCTT. This issue should also be taken into account in the “draft action plan on college research” which is currently being drafted, at the end of work carried out on this issue last year, indicates the Ministry.