Ontario college students and workers call on provincial candidates to fund post-secondary education
CBC
About 20 workers, students and local MPP candidates gathered outside Hamilton's Mohawk College Wednesday — where a fifth of full-time jobs have been cut since December — to call on the province to better fund post-secondary education.
Unionized college workers also rallied in Kingston, Belleville and Toronto, drawing attention to a series of recent job and program cuts they blame in part on the Ontario government.
Cuts at colleges are affecting entire communities, said Heather Giardine-Tuck, who represents members of the faculty union.
"We educate the students that are doing your x-rays, that are running the machines in the local shops. We turn out so many students that are working in their own home communities. We need to save this system," Giardine-Tuck, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 240, told CBC Hamilton.
The recent layoffs at Mohawk College are in addition to over a dozen programming cuts there, part of an effort to make up for a projected $50 million deficit, the college has said.
While Mohawk was one of the first Ontario colleges to announce cuts in the fall, it's far from alone, Giardine-Tuck added.
Colleges across Ontario, including St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Algonquin Cottage in Ottawa, and Centennial College and Seneca College in Toronto have all announced cuts.
Experts say policy changes effectively limiting the number of international students in Ontario colleges and universities were a catalyst for these cuts.
In 2024, the federal government said it would issue approximately 300,000 fewer international student permits over the next three years — a move that especially affects Ontario as it had seen a larger share of growth in foreign students.
However, some colleges also cited a lack of funding from the province.
"This did not happen overnight," Giardine-Tuck said.
Public funding for post-secondary schools has been declining since 2006 on a per-student basis, leading to "a decade of financial constraints," Steve Orsini, president of the Council of Ontario Universities, told CBC Hamilton in November. His organization represents 20 publicly funded universities.
An expert panel recommended increasing per-student funding and ending a tuition freeze in 2023. Orsini said the province has not enacted those recommendations.
At Wednesday's rally in Hamilton, part-time college instructor Christian Latour told CBC Hamilton he's hoping for a change in government.
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