In VP Finance Great Debate, candidates take each other to task over fees, club management

In Friday’s Great Debate for VP Finance, candidates took each other to task on questions of accountability, fiscal management and the AMS’s mission.

Arts Undergraduate Society VP Finance Lucia Liang repeatedly challenged her competitors in open debate sessions, while AMS Associate VP Finance Jon Tomalty relied on his insider knowledge to field a flurry of fact-checks.

The first question asked why each candidate should be trusted with students’ money in light of recent scandals where other student unions have mismanaged funds.

Viki Loncar, the treasurer of the International Relations Students Association (IRSA), said she would publish quarterly reports online “more frequently, in plain English, so that every student is able to understand.”

Tomalty, the current Associate VP Finance, pointed out that the AMS has a unique “infrastructure” in place to prevent fraud like permanent staff members and credit card limits. He also noted his experience working on financial reports with student-funded groups.

“I, under Kuol [Akuechbeny, current AMS VP Finance], have done some of the most in-depth work into transparency as to where our fees are going that's ever been done in this office,” said Tomalty.

When The Ubyssey pointed out the financial report requirement for student-funded groups was controversial for the labour it demands from them, Tomalty noted the requirement has been scaled back from quarterly to bi-annual following feedback.

“With a department like finance, when you talk about transparency, you need to talk about accessibility alongside it,” he said. “Most people don't have the time to go in and scour through numbers, and even if they do, those numbers require a lot of context.”

Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) VP Finance Lucia Liang said she would continue to submit financial reports as she is required to do for the AUS. She also said there should be better training for constituencies so they can collect data more efficiently.

“Part of my platform is to work with undergraduate studies and different constituencies, to train their treasurers, to ensure how to read financial reports and to publish something that is legible for students,” said Liang.

When Tomalty asked how the orientation process for treasurers has been lacklustre, Liang said most of the training has been “a quick slideshow” with “not much follow up after that.”

Discussion continued later in the debate when an audience member asked how the AMS can improve orientation for club treasurers.

Liang advocated for financial workshops and also encouraged executives to attend. Tomalty agreed that a hands-on approach worked better than online tutorials, noting that there should be a “check-in meeting” with treasurers to hold them accountable and continue training.

Profits vs Services

The next question was, simply, “Is the AMS a business?”

“In short, no,” said Tomalty. “We're a nonprofit society under the BC Societies Act.”

But he added that student fees are “higher than they should be” and he will do his best to use business profits to lower them.

Loncar said that while the AMS is a nonprofit, “business is a huge part of it,” and she would make sure outlets don’t incur deficits that would take money away from student services.

For a second time, Liang challenged her competitors.

“I don't think that the AMS should run as a business,” said Liang, “If profit is driven, it's just something that we should change.”

Instead, she wants outlets to run more sustainable business operations, but she provided no specific goals or details about how such a policy would be implemented.

Liang also said AMS fees are not that high compared to other universities, so reductions should not be a priority. To promote affordability, the AMS should address the costs of housing and transportation instead.

Tomalty clarified that housing and transportation are outside the VP Finance portfolio, and asked Liang whether she doesn’t support “any fee decreases of any kind.”

Liang responded that she wouldn’t rule it out, but she would consult thoroughly before making a change.

“As a nonprofit society, our duty is to all our members,” Tomalty said. “A fee reduction is the best way to serve every single member.”

Funding SASC

Candidates were then asked how they would balance costs for the Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) if the referendum to triple its funding fails.

Tomalty denied the question’s premise, explaining that he could never make a decision without first consulting survivors and SASC staff.

“I think that the problems that have been made over the past year have been because executives think that they have the authority to make this call without consulting group's affected,” he said.

Loncar said she would do all she can to increase SASC’s “heavily under-budgeted” funding.

Liang said she would advocate for a student survey that would rally support, but it is unclear how this survey would differentiate from the Academic Experience Survey that is managed by the VP Academic and University Affairs portfolio.

Tomalty was later asked by a Ubyssey editor in the audience how he would cut SASC budgets if its employees were unionized.

He declined to comment on the ongoing collective bargaining at SASC but reiterated the need to consult the Centre’s staff.

“This is something that you can't kind of approach abruptly,” he said, when pushed for a more direct answer. “It needs to be done, obviously, from a top-down level, starting with the SASC manager … not just dropping it on them like a bomb like what happened in the summer.”

Questions from the audience

In response to a question about the surpluses of undergraduate societies, candidates agreed that constituencies could spend funds autonomously, so long as they don’t fall in debt.

Finally, Loncar was asked how she managed to decrease the IRSA membership fee from $10 to $2, one of her proudest accomplishments as IRSA treasurer.

She explained that membership fees only accounted for five per cent of their total revenue, and they are applying for funds to make up the difference. Loncar believes this experience will assist her in her role as VP Finance.

“I would work on similar strategies, possibly by creating surpluses from the businesses, so that maybe we could cut the AMS fee costs,” she said.

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