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It received $330.4 million for 2014-15.

“It’s really the long-term nature of the university and it’s good financial management that we can absorb these kind of shocks, but it will have long-term implications,” Fowler said. “Ultimately, if these kind of things continued, we’d definitely have to look at a lot of different avenues for addressing them.”

A portion of this year’s lost money — $1.35 million toward supporting the work of a Canada Excellence Research Chair in water security — is being deferred. The remainder — $565,000 for a scholarship fund and $7.9 million for capital spending such as maintenance — is being dropped.

The provincial Ministry of Advanced Education already asked all post-secondary institutions to reduce costs this year because of higher-than-normal expenditures to fight the summer’s northern fires and lower resource revenues due to the decline in oil prices.

In response, the U of S said this spring it would hold back $20 million in project spending. The University of Regina, which had requested a four per cent funding increase from the province, received a one per cent increase in March. That increase has now been trimmed to 0.5 per cent, a loss of $539,000 for 2015-16. It will also lose out on $312,000 the province had earmarked for scholarships.

Bob Bymoen, president of the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union, said in a release that the province’s decision to cut millions of dollars from post-secondary institutions “doesn’t make sense.” At a time when Saskatchewan is experiencing a skilled labour shortage, the province should not cut funding to institutions that train people to enter the workforce, he argued.

The U of S board of governors is expected to discuss how to backfill the funding reduction at a meeting next week.