OCFMA Benchmarking Report

updated May 2022

Each year, OCFMA releases a report to summarize operations for the Ontario College sector. Each of the province’s 24 Colleges is responsible for submitting their report data in late summer. The data are then compiled, analyzed, reviewed and published into a report the following spring.

The report is used by Executives to monitor trends in the College sector. Facilities Leaders use the report to compare their institution’s indicators to prior years and against College peers to seek best practice opportunities.

  1. What’s in the Report
  2. Recent Findings
  3. How to prepare the report data template

 

Report Data Templates, Annual Reports and Companion Data files are available on our document repository site on BoardEffect.  Visit the Become a Member section of our website to inquire about how Members can access this resource.

 

What is in the Report

The report is broken into 3 sections

  1. System Metrics – aggregated statistics for the College sector
  2. Cluster Comparisons – grouped measures comparing similar sized Colleges
  3. College Comparisons – key indicators ranking individual Colleges

 

Key metrics include:

  • Trends in Total System Operating Costs 
  • College Space & Enrolment Growth
  • Utility Trends 
  • Greenhouse Gas Emissions

 

 

 

The report is also accompanied by a companion data file that includes 5-years of detailed, historical data used to generate the report. It is made available to those interested in digging for deeper insights from the report.

 

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Findings from the most recent report (May 19, 2022):

Executive Summary 2020/21

  • This reporting timeframe includes the impact of the global COVID pandemic which led to College shutdowns in March 2020. Although some operations remained, academic and support activities were greatly reduced. Operational impacts are highlighted in this report.
  • All 24 Colleges reported this period however, utility costs for George Brown College were unavailable and estimates were used.

FINDINGS

  • Across all Colleges, space has increased slightly by +0.1M square feet (+0.4%) to 31.8M.
    • The nominal +0.4% increase in College space versus last year was driven by a +1.6% increase at Medium Colleges, and +0.4% increase in Small Colleges. Large Colleges reported area decreases of -0.7.
  • Overall Student WFU (weighted funding unit) enrolment has decreased 18,382 (-6.9%) since last year to 246,706.

 

  • The total operating costs across the Ontario Colleges decreased, primarily due to COVID, by -$29.0M (-9.0%) versus last year to $293M currently.
    • The -9.0% (-$29.0M) decrease in system-wide operating costs was driven primarily by a -$15.6M (-20.7%) decrease in Utilities & Waste and -$5.6M (-30.4%) decrease in Parking expenses.
    • These decreases were offset by increased spending in Other Operations of +$4.3M (+31.9%).
    • Other Operations may include other areas that some Facilities departments are directly responsible for but are not typically included provincially. It’s likely that many of the costs related to COVID mitigation were recorded in this category.
    • Facilities Maintenance had the greatest single impact on the system-wide facilities costs accounting for 23.7% of the total costs followed by Utilities & Waste at 20.7%.

 

  • Overall utilities costs (excluding waste) decreased by -$14.6M (-19.8%) to $59M. The COVID impact kept building occupancies quite low which resulted in notable cost decreases in Electricity and Water: -19.6% and -45.7% respectively. However, heating was less impacted by building occupancy resulting in a nominal decrease in Natural Gas costs -1.1%.
    • Electricity represents 76% of total utility costs.
    • Total costs for electricity decreased by -$11.1M (-19.6%) versus last year. The reduced building occupancy due to COVID contributed to a -20.1% decrease in consumption. Electricity rates increased by +0.6%.
    • Natural Gas expenditures decreased by -1.1% in spite of a decrease in consumption of -7.1%. Rates increased +6.5% to a system average of +$0.29/m3.
    • Total Water expenditures have decreased by -$3.4M (-45.7%) since last year, primarily due to COVID as consumption decreased -52.0%. Water/ Sewer rates increased +13.1% during this period to $4.03.

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How to prepare the report data template

A new report template is used each year to collect data for each College.  It contains improvements from previous files and adjustments for the upcoming report.

The Report Data Template file can be retrieved from BoardEffect (requires log-in).

 

Steps

  1. Log into BoardEffect,Screenshot: How to navigate to the OCFMA Library
  2. From the dropdown menu on the left column, select ‘Workrooms’ then ‘ASCC – Administrative’,
  3. Select ‘OCFMA…’
  4. Click the ‘Library’ button on the top menu,
  5. Select the ‘Other Files’ hyperlink below the Library button.
  6. Next, scroll down and open the ‘OCFMA Benchmarking Reports’ folder
  7. Click the ‘OCFMA Benchmarking Report Data Template’ file and save to your local drive.
  8. Uncompress the new file, open and follow the instructions to complete the forms.
  9. Once complete, return the file by clicking ‘Submit Via Email’ from the ‘Submit’ worksheet or, email directly to r_mcevoy@Fanshawec.ca.

Files are due each year by Aug. 31.

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