NWP Sustainability

With significant deficits projected for 2026-2027 and subsequent years, the Board of Governors tasked NWP administration to conduct an extensive review of all NWP finances and operations this past summer.

In August and September, NWP shared detailed information with key stakeholders, partners, and staff and faculty, highlighting anticipated fiscal shortfalls, current enrolment trends, and future sustainability challenges.

A comprehensive sustainability plan was then developed by NWP administration, including 10 recommendations that were presented and subsequently endorsed by the Board of Governors on October 29, 2025.

The following is a summary of key decisions from NWP’s Board Meeting on October 29, 2025:

1. Conclude NWP's stewardship of the Fairview campus.
2. Advocate for the Fairview community’s future use of campus facilities.
3. Suspend programs with low enrolment or high costs.
4. Relocate select programs to Grande Prairie for greater efficiency.
5. Purchase and renovate a building in Grande Prairie to accommodate program moves.
6. Update the capital plan and strategically use reserves.
7. Rebuild financial reserves over time.
8. Establish clear program success metrics for ongoing accountability.
9. Refocus non-academic and non-overhead activities to ensure cost recovery and alignment with NWP’s strategic priorities.
10. Prioritize Board advocacy items.

The review identified multiple factors contributing to operational pressures, including declining enrolment and tuition revenue, rising costs, potential changes to grant funding parameters, and substantial facility maintenance requirements in Fairview.

NWP’s detailed analysis of finances and operations identified:

• A significant structural deficit for the Fairview campus.
• Costly program delivery, many with low student demand and low labour market demand.
• Excess or redundant positions/processes/infrastructure associated with maintaining a satellite campus.

The Fairview campus will continue to operate as normal for the remainder of the 2025-2026 school year. This includes apprenticeship programs scheduled to run from January to July 2026.

Students completing their programs by July 2026 will not be impacted. NWP will work with students who are currently midway through programming to explore solutions and options that allow them to continue their studies with minimal disruption.

Students can expect more information on their programs from their Dean in the coming weeks.

Staff have been notified of the closure of the Fairview campus. In the coming days and weeks, NWP leadership will share further information on program relocations and campus wind-down processes. NWP is committed to working closely with everyone involved to ensure the smoothest possible transition.

NWP is facing a significant deficit in 2026-2027 and subsequent years. It is no longer feasible to operate campuses in both Grande Prairie and Fairview without compromising the institution’s financial stability and long-term viability.

No. The decision is a proactive step to ensure NWP remains fiscally responsible and sustainable into the future.

Moving to a single-campus model allows NWP to strategically focus resources, better address student and industry needs, and reposition the polytechnic for long-term stability and growth.

This situation is not unique to NWP. Many Canadian polytechnics and post-secondary institutions are currently faced with tough decisions to address financial and operational challenges.

The closure will result in significant overhead cost efficiencies.

Maintaining two campuses requires duplicated supports such as facilities management, student services, campus security, and administrative costs. While NWP has been able to use surpluses from Grande Prairie to offset prolonged budget deficits in Fairview for more than a decade, this approach is no longer sustainable amid institution-wide budgetary pressures.

This year, the Fairview campus is projected to have an operating deficit of $4.1M, increasing to $5.4M in 2026-2027, and $6.1M in 2027-2028. This satellite campus also currently requires more than $100M in deferred maintenance to remain operational and in step with modern safety and infrastructure standards.

Operating two separate campuses creates uniquely high overhead costs for NWP, including:

• A physical footprint that is disproportionate to the student population.
• High delivery costs for some programs.
• Excess staffing.
• Duplicative administrative tasks across both campuses.

The detailed financial analysis also identified that several programs offered at Fairview have low enrolment and limited alignment with current labour market needs. This makes continued delivery unsustainable and increasingly difficult to justify without impacting NWP’s broader institutional priorities.

Select programs will be moved to the main campus or consolidated with similar programs offered in Grande Prairie for Fall 2026.

Programs with high delivery costs, low enrolment, limited labour-market demand, or other operational factors will be suspended.

NWP is in the final stages of confirming program changes and will notify affected staff, faculty, and students shortly. This list will be made publicly available once decisions are communicated within the organization.

Industry feedback highlights a strong demand for skilled trades professionals and an urgent need to expand skilled trades training in Grande Prairie.

NWP is continuing work on a $69.6M funding request for a new Skilled Trades Centre on the Grande Prairie campus. This work aligns with recommendations from the Government of Alberta’s Skills for Jobs Task Force and Alberta 2030: Building Skills for Jobs strategy, both of which emphasize expanding apprenticeship education across the province.

This four-year expansion investment will ensure NWP’s programs and services meet evolving industry, student, and regional needs. Current planning for NWP’s Skilled Trades Centre will now be adjusted to reflect the consolidation of trades programs in Grande Prairie.

NWP remains committed to our True North Strategic Plan, which focuses on growing enrolment and meeting the needs of students and communities across the region, including the Town of Fairview and Municipal District of Fairview.

While NWP will no longer have a physical presence in Fairview, we will continue to deliver impactful and responsive programming that offers lasting value for learners in northwest Alberta.

As a polytechnic, we are focused on applied learning and work-integrated education. We work closely with industries and communities to ensure our programming is responsive to local needs and aligned with workforce development.

A fiscal outlook report was shared with community municipal officials for the town and M.D. of Fairview, area MLAs, the local MP, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Fairview Community Advisory Council in the summer of 2025.

The future of the Fairview campus and its buildings/facilities is yet to be determined. While NWP’s stewardship role for the Fairview campus in its current capacity will conclude in the summer of 2026, we are committed to helping to bring together stakeholders and facilitating conversations that will support exploration of options for repurposing campus buildings and land to leverage unique local strengths.

NWP is transforming to ensure all resources, including donations and sponsorships, are optimized. The process for handling endowments made to the Fairview campus will be determined in the coming months.

NWP sees a need for bold, transformative action to ensure long-term sustainability.

If adopted, the recent Expert Panel on Post-Secondary Institution Funding and Alberta’s Competitiveness recommendations would have significant implications for individual post-secondary institutions like NWP.

Funding would become more closely tied to enrolment, program costs, and measurable outcomes, rather than simply continuing past allocations.

More specifically, given NWP’s large physical footprint relative to the disproportionate number of students enrolled, NWP would not be able to cover the base operating expenses associated with having two campuses.

A new funding model puts NWP at added risk because we are the most expensive polytechnic institution on a per Full-Load Equivalent (FLE) basis, and we receive a higher proportion of grant funding than other Alberta polytechnic institutions.

NWP is taking a proactive approach, anticipating changes that will intensify challenges on the Fairview campus and be detrimental to Grande Prairie operations.