The long-term economic growth of our province depends on a strong talent pipeline, the hands-on learning our community colleges excel at providing, and the innovation fuelled by our universities.
That flywheel was interrupted when Doug Ford got elected in 2018 and six years later has come to a screeching halt.
Ontario has now hit rock bottom. Dead last among all provinces in Canada when it comes to funding post-secondary institutions. Dead last when it comes to the contribution to operating budgets. Dead last when we look at the fraction of the provincial GDP that we spend on post-secondary education.
Ontario contributes a mere 30 per cent to post-secondary operating budgets, leaving 65 per cent on the backs of students. For the last six years, the maximum number of domestic students and per-student provincial funding has been frozen.
No other province has slashed post-secondary funding so deeply, nor have any others leaned so heavily on private sources to try — and fail — to fill that gap. Because of Doug Ford, it’s no wonder that ten out of twenty-three public universities in Ontario are now reporting deficits.
Doug Ford has made it harder for students in Ontario to afford higher education. Less than six months after forming the government, Ford cut OSAP funding by 40 percent and eliminated the six-month interest-free grace period for loan repayments.
As provincial support shriveled, Ford made no effort to limit the number of study permits being issued, set no cap on international students’ tuition fees and effectively pressured our post-secondary institutions to recruit as many international students as possible.
Since 2019, Ontario has seen a whopping 82 percent surge in international student enrolment, totalling over 520,000 study permit holders — over half of the total number in the entire country. Since Ford became premier, many colleges across Ontario now have a majority of international students.
In 2017, the then-Ontario Liberal government directed public colleges to shut down their partnerships with private career colleges based on an external review of these deceptive arrangements.
Yet, soon after getting elected in 2018, the Conservatives reversed that decision. That resulted in private career colleges mushrooming in strip malls across the province, particularly in the GTA, with poorly qualified instructors, no student residences, and no academic or extracurricular support being available for students.
Ontario now has over 500 private career colleges. We have all become too familiar with social media posts and news articles describing these institutions’ exploitation of international students. Interestingly, the owners of many of these colleges are reportedly busy filling the coffers of Ford’s Conservative Party.
So let’s put all these pieces together. Ford deliberately underfunded our public institutions, limited domestic students’ access to post-secondary education, slashed OSAP, and allowed subpar private diploma mills to overwhelm local housing markets and exploit innocent international students.
Ontario is at a crossroads today because of Ford’s choices. With a shrinking GDP per capita, declining productivity, and labour shortages, we have two options. We can either carry on with Ford’s failed policies, which have resulted in public post-secondary institutions being in distress, or we can remind ourselves of the proud legacy that powered the economic engine of Ontario for generations.
I want the latter. I want a renewed focus on making Ontario a global leader in higher education and training.
Three simple steps can be taken immediately to fix this mess.
First, let’s invest in our public post-secondary institutions. They are our assets. Let’s help them flourish and deliver high-quality training and learning experiences that meet our labour-market needs.
Second, let’s invest in OSAP and increase grant funding. This will ensure that post-secondary education and training become more accessible for all domestic students. I have always believed that if you get the grades, you get to go.
Finally, let’s bring an end to the broken public college-private partnership model. It has proven to be a scar on our system, jeopardizing our global reputation.
The career I’ve had is thanks in no small part to the start I received in Ontario’s universities. I want this generation to have that same opportunity. They are not getting it in Ford’s Ontario.
Together, we’ll change that.
Bonnie Crombie is the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party and served nearly a decade as mayor of Mississauga.
