KITCHENER — The province has cut millions in funding for Communitech, leading the innovation hub to lay off almost 15 per cent of its staff this week.

About $2.1 million in funding has been cut, or roughly a third of the funding the province provides to Communitech each year and about 10 per cent of its overall budget. Fifteen of the hub's 105 employees were laid off Wednesday as a result.

"Certainly, it's always difficult to say goodbye to talented colleagues, but we're still in a good position," Avvey Peters, Communitech's chief strategy officer, said Friday. "We'll do everything we can to help them land elsewhere in the ecosystem."

The roles were at various levels of the organization and ranged from marketing and events planning, to finance and administration, "from the senior level right on through," Peters said.

Communitech, an organization that advocates for Waterloo Region's tech sector, knew a reduction in provincial funding was coming given the government's emphasis on cost-cutting to reduce the deficit. It had been in talks with the province for weeks. The current funding will carry Communitech through the rest of 2019, but all future funding is set for a review this fall.

According to its 2018 year-end report, the organization had about $24.3 million in revenue and expenses last year. The province remains its largest funder despite the cut.

In October, Treasury Board president Peter Bethlenfalvy warned Communitech and other innovation hubs across the province they would need to submit business plans to justify continued funding from the province.

Sarah Letersky, director of communications for the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, said in an email to The Record last week that said the government "is doing its part to address the fiscal situation, while continuing to invest in measures that will lead to good jobs in the tech sector across the province."

She said the province is committed to tech jobs in Ontario, and that the government "continues to work with and invest in the tech sector — because when our job creators thrive, our communities thrive."

Peters said Communitech spent the past few weeks developing ways to streamline and find efficiencies, and that the priority remains helping tech companies at all stages.

"We'll realign some resources to ensure we can still do that. It might require us to adjust some workshop offerings or coaching offerings, but we're confident we'll still be able to deliver all the things we need to deliver," she said.

jjackson@therecord.com

Twitter: @JamesDEJ

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