Add Your Voice: Tell Doug Ford to Make the Colleges a Part of Ontario’s Future

 

Ontario’s Colleges are in trouble. In the last year, over 10,000 faculty and staff have been laid off, and we expect to see many more talented, hardworking people lose their jobs in the next year. Conestoga College just announced sweeping layoffs of faculty and staff before the holidays. 

Since the last federal budget cut the number of new international student visas in half nationwide, Ontario’s 24 public colleges have been threatening more program closures, laying off employees, and shutting down whole campuses. 

 

 

The Problem

 

The reduction in international student visas is only adding stress to a system that in already on the verge of collapse. 

As recent reporting makes clear, the failure of the system is Doug Ford’s responsibility. The Ontario college system struggles to cover its most basic costs. This is because Ontario colleges and universities receive the lowest level of public funding per-student in Canada, by a long shot. In 2023, The Conservative government’s own Blue Ribbon Panel recommended a drastic increase in per-student funding to keep the Ontario Colleges afloat. 

 

But instead, Ontario’s post-secondary sector is getting no help from the provincial government, and isn't allowed to raise tuition on domestic students. (Tuition has been frozen since 2019). 

These decisions affect colleges disproportionately, since tuition for diploma programs is especially low and private donors tend to support research universities. 

 

Doug Ford and Mark Carney say they want to put Ontarians to work on nation-building projects. But the institutions that prepare people for this work are shutting programs and laying people off.

 

Where is the Money Going?

 

Instead of investing in public education, Doug Ford's government has given billions of training dollars to private companies through the Skills Development Fund (SDF) in a process the Auditor General has heavily criticized.

 

Recent reporting has revealed that the Ontario government has funnelled 2.5 billion dollars into the Skills Development Fund since 2020, a private slush fund that was used to reward Conservative party allies and donors even when their applications were evaluated poorly. 

This government wants to starve the public colleges and send the money to private companies—but only if those companies give Ford a little something in return. 

 

The scandal of the Skills Development Fund has led to calls for the David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, to resign. Now, he is being investigated by the integrity commissioner. But that’s not enough. We need to communicate to the Ontario government that the people of Ontario see what’s going on, and they won’t stand for the college system being devastated. 

 

 

What Can I Do? 

 

You can send a message to Doug Ford, Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn, and your local MPP. 

Suggested text is below, but please feel free to alter it as you see fit to speak for how public colleges have impacted your own family. If you like, you can also flood the Ontario government's public consultation survey for their 2026 budget, here. But the survey is  set up to provide a small number of options, and a letter writing campaign is a better way to get attention. 

While the Ford government isn’t going to change its fundamental priorities, this government has reversed its course on several issues in response to public pressure. We have to tell them that Ontarians have noticed the Skills Development Fund scandal and expect public education to be properly funded. 

 

Sample Email:

 

Dear Minister Quinn, Premier Ford, and [Name of your MPP], 

I am an Ontario voter and I am writing to express my deep concern about the state of Ontario colleges. 

 

Ontario’s colleges are in crisis. Despite the clear need for higher education and worker retraining in a time of “nation-building” and possible recession, the colleges are being allowed to collapse and struggle. Some may even close, just when workers are most likely to need re-training. Ontario’s post-secondary institutions currently receive a lower rate of per-student funding than any other province. Meanwhile, the scandalous Skills Development Fund has siphoned public funds that could have been used for public education into the hands of private companies and Conservative party donors. 

 

We demand:

 

* The Ontario government must immediately increase funding to Ontario Colleges to the levels recommended by their own Blue-Ribbon Panel. 

* The Ontario government must allow domestic student tuition to at least increase with inflation - currently, with the tuition freeze, funding is cut every year.

* The Ontario government must shut down the Skills Development Fund as a show of good faith with the public, to demonstrate that their government can transcend graft and quid pro quo. The money must be put back into public post-secondary education.

 

 

Sincerely,

[Your name] 

 

Send to: 

 

·      Your MPP: find your MPP by postal code here: https://www.ola.org/en/members/current 

·      Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security:       nolan.quinn@pc.ola.org

·      Doug Ford as premier: Premier@ontario.ca