Including gains from the sale of two properties and higher-than-expected tuition revenue and provincial grants, Laurentian University generated a surplus of $55.2 million for the 2024-2025 financial year, which ended April 30.
The university’s board of governors approved LU’s 2024-2025 financial statements Oct. 17, which were audited by the financial firm BDO (Laurentian has “no material going concern uncertainty”) and prepared in consultation with the firm Ernst & Young, which supervised Laurentian’s insolvency restructuring earlier this decade.
You can view these financial statements in the board package, along with Laurentian’s financial report for the year 2024-2025, which provides commentary on the university’s financial situation.
Universities must submit their financial statements from the previous fiscal year to the province and post them publicly by the end of this month.
“Overall, Laurentian University is in a financially stable state, and it does reflect our prudent fiscal management,” Laurentian vice-president, finance and administration Sylvie Lafontaine, told the university’s board.
“It is on the road for recovery, as you would see. So therefore we do get to see some of that progress being made over the past two years, but it also reflects how we need to continue to be cautious in the uncertainty of the environment we're navigating, in the higher ed sector in Ontario, more particularly.”
Laurentian also posted a large surplus, $37.9 million, in 2023-2024, and has actually now had several years of surpluses following its insolvency restructuring, but if you go back to the 2020-21 financial year, it had a deficit of $66.7 million.
The university is not expecting these large surpluses to continue, with a small surplus of $1.7 million expected for the current 2025-2026 financial year due to geopolitical factors including federal policy changes surrounding international students and U.S. tariffs.
And it continues to have several fixed obligations in the aftermath of its insolvency, including paying down its long-term $35-million loan to the province, which needs to be repaid by 2038.
The university made principal payments of $1.5 million to the loan in 2024-2025, along with interest of $2 million. It still owes $31.3 million.
It also paid almost $8 million toward the implementation of its post-insolvency operational transformation plan in the last fiscal year, with 27.5 per cent of the plan’s “deliverables” complete as of last month, the board heard during the meeting.
The estimated cost of Laurentian’s operational transformation has been estimated to be $32.5 million over four years.
Laurentian plans to finally pay off its creditors after funding its creditors’ pool to the tune of $53.5 million from property sales to the province, including the Living with Lakes building, which it sold in early 2025 for proceeds of $8 million.
However, it now has a yearly rental bill of $2.1 million a year with its new landlord, the province of Ontario, after the property sales.
The 2024-2025 surplus encompasses several one-time items, Lafontaine said, including property sales (Living with Lakes as well as the president’s house) “where there were gains that were recognized as revenue” and higher-than-expected tuition revenue and provincial grants.
The Laurentian president’s house on John Street was also sold to a private purchaser for proceeds of $894,000 in the spring of 2024, and the university initially said the money would be going to the creditors’ pool.
However, financial documents show LU the president’s home proceeds won’t be going to creditors, as the creditors’ pool has now been fully funded with property sales to the province.
Lafontaine said there was a “significant, certainly unexpected, increase in tuition fees” from international graduate students contributing to the surplus last year.
With 6,332 students (full-time equivalent), Laurentian University had a one-per-cent increase in student enrolment over the prior year and one-per-cent less than budgeted for the 2024-25 fiscal year, said the financial report.
Domestic enrolment decreased by two per cent, while international enrolment rose by 13 per cent year-over-year.
Laurentian’s balance sheet shows $77.2 million in tuition revenue in 2024-2025, as opposed to almost $67.8 million the year before.
The university benefitted from increased nursing program funding, northern and rural grants and funding from the Efficiency and Accountability Fund, Lafontaine said.
Laurentian brought in $95.2 million in operating grants and contracts in the last fiscal year, as opposed to $82.5 million the year before.
In 2024-2025, Laurentian University faculty, staff, students and affiliated research partners secured $16 million in research funding, a notable increase from $13.5M in the previous year, said the financial documents.
Lafontaine said salaries and benefits reflect just under 60 per cent of Laurentian’s expenses. “Our expenditures as compared to budget is lower when it comes to salaries and benefits, as it does reflect a significant number of vacancies,” she said.
Capital expenditures at Laurentian in 2024-25 amounted to $10 million and related mostly to roof replacements, the new STEM Hub, and the new Language Laboratory.
“Laurentian continues to manage a considerable deferred maintenance backlog estimated at over $200 million (though this value is under review),” said the financial documents.
The documents also make mention of the cost of a February 2024 cyber incident and data breach at Laurentian.
Earlier this year, Sudbury.com asked for the total cost of the cyber breach through a freedom of information request, which the university at the time said was almost $818,000.
However, in its 2024-2025 financials, Laurentian said the cost was actually a little over $1 million, and it holds an insurance policy of $2 million in coverage, with a $250,000 deductible.
“The incident has been submitted and acknowledged by the Insurer,” said the financial documents. “The Insurer is reviewing the claim and has not provided a determination on what expenditures will be covered or accepted therefore a receivable and corresponding expense recovery have not been recorded in these financial statements.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.