The Ontario government's recently announced plan to make major changes to OSAP by drastically reducing the percentage of grants to 25 per cent from 85 per cent has angered opposition parties, who say they are taking steps to try to fight the move.
After years of being accused of underfunding the post-secondary system, the Doug Ford-led government proposed changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) that are the most contentious of a larger plan that includes an increase in funding to colleges and universities, as well as giving post-secondary institutions the ability to increase tuition.
The OSAP change that would cap non-repayable grants at 25 per cent marks a major cut from the previous 85 per cent grant-based funding. The new model strives to provide 75 per cent of OSAP funding as loans and will no longer offer grants to students at private career colleges.
Tyler Watt, Liberal MPP for Nepean and the party's critic for Training, Colleges and Universities, said these changes ensure that students who use OSAP leave their post-secondary education with significant debt, as they will need to pay this money back with interest.
Watt said he finds this deeply concerning and received more than 100 emails immediately after the announcement from concerned constituents.
“They don’t even know if they can go to college or university anymore,” he said.
Watt said the post-secondary sector has been highly underfunded for the last eight years under the Ford government and now has reached a boiling point where the universities have gone into massive debt.
He said he has been in contact with folks at colleges, and many have told him that they are not even sure what will stay open after next year, as they have cut everything that they possibly could.
Watt agreed that this $6.4 billion funding was needed to support the 600 programs that were cut across Ontario, adding that this was a fire that this government set for themselves.
He said the alternative approach would be proper investments.
“Sure, there can be efficiencies, there can be cost-saving measures implemented in every sector, but bringing them to a point of where it’s nearly collapsing and then giving them a little bit to survive is not how we should be operating this system,” Watt said.
He said the students are the future workforce that is going to contribute to Ontario’s economy, and the Liberal Party would want to make sure they have access to the education that they need.
Watt said the premier is “completely out of touch with reality and OSAP.”
He said a student needs to meet certain requirements to qualify for this funding, and those people would not have money for expensive watches or vacations.
“He can try to villainize an entire group of students, but these are people who vote, and I hope they are motivated and fired up to get better people in, because they deserve it,” Watt said.
Watt said he has written a letter to Nolan Quinn, the Ontario minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, demanding an immediate reversal of the changes made to OSAP.
He said he is currently meeting with students’ unions, getting involved with protests that are being planned to oppose the change, and plans to present a petition at Queen's Park.
Peggy Sattler, NDP MPP for London West and shadow minister for Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, said these changes are making students question whether they can afford to study next year.
Sattler said there is only a fraction of students in need of financial assistance who even qualify for OSAP funding, while others are left to fend for themselves. And now the government is trying to even take that away.
She said this is a very poor decision and at an even worse time, when the province is in the middle of a job crisis, especially among youth.
“And really, there is no good time. This change can’t be justified because not only is it going to harm the students whose lives will be affected by this change, but it also hurts our local economies when employers won’t have that pipeline of graduates that they were relying on,” she said.
Sattler said the Ford government, justifying the annual two per cent tuition increase, portraying it as an additional cost of $0.18 per day for college students and $0.47 for university students, is a mirage and that two per cent is a significant amount when students can barely afford rent, groceries and transit.
Sattler also mentioned that she has been getting emails from students, some in their final semester, questioning if they will be able to pay for graduate school.
She said it is the same for high school students planning to go to post-secondary this fall, as a lot of them come from families struggling with the high cost of living in Ontario.
Sattler said that the New Democrats have campaigned for several elections, and their commitment has been to eliminate student loans and make all financial assistance in the form of grants.
She said the government introduced a 10 per cent cut to tuition back in 2019, which was welcomed as Ontario then had the highest tuition in all of Canada, but Sattler adds that Ford did not do anything to fill the funding gap and revenue shortfall that was created for the institutions, which have not been able to get out of it.
Sattler said the Student Access Guarantee (SAG), a bursary for low-income students, is not going to be sufficient as it ignores the fact that there are so many more post-secondary students struggling to afford their education.
She said this is also why food bank reports say that the highest number of users are post-secondary students.
“It’s nonsense," Sattler said. "There is no student from a family earning $250,000 that is collecting OSAP.”
She said the Ontario NDP has launched a “Save OSAP” campaign and an online social media toolkit that people who are concerned about this can use to raise awareness and mobilize engagement.
Sattler said she is also connecting individually with organizers at campuses across Ontario who are working hard to keep students informed.
“We are determined to do everything we can alongside the grassroots organizers, student-led movements that are working to rally this opposition,” Sattler said.
Sattler said she and her team are calling the offices of local Conservative MPPs to put pressure on them, noting that the Premier does not enjoy being unpopular and may reverse the policy if he sees enough of a backlash, which is the end goal.
Ontario Green Party leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner said he is also opposed to piling more debt on the backs of students.
Schreiner said that Ontario has the lowest funding for the post-secondary system, record-high youth unemployment levels of 16.5 per cent, and students who will now be entering the worst housing crisis in Ontario’s history.
He blamed the Ford government for the unsustainable financial situation facing post-secondary institutions are facing a completely unsustainable financial and said he needs to bring Ontario at least up to the national average.
Schreiner said the Greens' objective is to increase grants to 100 per cent rather than dramatically decrease them.
He said the Ford government has underfunded both the K-12 education system and the post-secondary system, and has been very clear with his inflammatory comments in recent days that he does not support post-secondary education.
“The premier simply doesn’t get it. He doesn't understand it. He doesn't support it, and that’s exactly why he has starved the system since he has been elected,” he said.
Schreiner said the Ford government is making Ontario less competitive despite it having some of the highest-quality colleges and universities, which are unable to uphold that standard because of being severely underfunded.
“I’d love to see Ontario at the top, but at a minimum, let’s at least bring it up to the national average,” he said.
