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.
International student limits not the only issue
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.
Mohawk College’s president says the college is facing a $50 million deficit mostly due to dropping international student enrolment.
At Wednesday’s rally in Hamilton, part-time college instructor Christian Latour told CBC Hamilton he’s hoping for a change in government.
Latour said he has “no faith” in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario to manage education, which he says has been “chronically” underfunded.
Latour’s partner is also a teacher at Mohawk. They have two adult children with disabilities, he said, and it’s been stressful to think about what might happen if either him or his partner, or both of them, lost their job.
“As part-time faculty, we’re never sure if we’re going to be offered contracts again in the next semester,” Latour said.
College layoffs also affected his work, he said, adding that he recently contacted a student success advisor for help with a student who was struggling, only to learn they’d been cut.
“Somebody’s gone who would have been a direct support for these students to help them succeed,” he said. “It causes me great concern for the success of my students.”
The systemic lack of funding, Giardine-Tuck said, “forced the colleges to have to look at alternative sources of revenue,” be they public-private partnerships or international students. And since the cuts started coming, she said, the province has been largely absent.
“It breaks my heart,” she said, adding job losses could have been prevented.
OPSEU, which represents over 45,000 college faculty and support staff, called for $1.4 billion in emergency funding to stabilize the sector.
In a January news release, the union said premier and current PC leader Doug Ford “shifted the responsibility of financing our colleges, a public good, onto students and institutions.”
In a November email, Dayna Smockum, a spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn, said “funding for post-secondary institutions is higher than it’s ever been,” adding the province invested $1.3 billion to “stabilize the sector” earlier that year.
For Mohawk students, the prevailing mood seems to be uncertainty and confusion, Pedro Nemezio de Campos Silva, president of the Mohawk Students’ Association (MSA) said.
Nemezio, a recent graduate of Mohawk’s educational support program who came to Canada from Brazil three years ago, said the MSA is still trying to “fully understand” what the changes mean for students.
The main concerns he’s hearing are how the cuts might affect services and spaces on campus, and whether they will impact processes such as payments and academic appeals.
As an educator himself, Nemezio told CBC Hamilton he finds the situation concerning. “Education is an investment. It’s the core basis of a functional society,” and “needs to be supported,” he said.
He added that students are a vulnerable group in which many people are already struggling with the cost of living. Cuts and uncertainty at school takes “an extra toll,” on them, he said.
Alexandria Catherine Davis, studying arts and science at Mohawk, said college cuts are inspiring them to vote and “make that difference.”
“How in this world can we build a good, stable future for ourselves and maintain Canada’s middle class unless things like education and jobs are provided to us?” they asked.
As someone who’s paying their own way through college and relying on the Ontario Student Assistance Plan (OSAP), Davis said the uncertainty of the layoffs have made for a “scary time.”
Davis said their “heart goes out” to people who will be affected by the closure of City School, Mohawk’s long-running program that offered free courses to people with little to no post-secondary education.
The college announced the program will end in March as part of the cuts.
What the parties say
Here’s some of what the major political parties are promising when it comes to college cuts and post-secondary education.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
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The PC party says it would “continue in negotiations with all colleges and universities on their strategic mandate funding agreements,” to ensure they have the necessary funding to educate students for jobs in fields such as nursing, healthcare and the skilled trades.
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In Monday’s election debate, PC leader Doug Ford said his government cut tuition by 10 per cent when elected and “never raised it.”
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Ford added that his party would focus on supporting students going into science, technology, engineering and math, and the skilled trades because “those are the jobs of the future.”
New Democratic Party of Ontario
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The NDP would work with colleges to “fund and expand” programs, a spokesperson said.
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The party said it is “committed to permanently increasing base funding and investing in research and innovation,” to prevent further lost jobs and cancelled programs.
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If elected, the NDP says it would invest in research.
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The party has also said it would better fund OSAP, end student loan interest and convert loans to grants.
Ontario Liberal Party
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The Liberals did not respond to specific questions from CBC Hamilton but have said they would fund post-secondary school so they don’t have to rely on international student tuition.
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The party also said it would cap international student enrolment at 10 per cent of each school’s student body.
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The Liberals said they would eliminate OSAP loan interest and not require repayment until recipients earn $50,000 annually.
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In the debate, Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie also said her party would increase OSAP.
Green Party of Ontario
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The Greens did not respond to specific questions from CBC Hamilton but have said they would boost post-secondary funding by 20 per cent.
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The party said it would fund the sector based on enrolment rather than performance, with increases tied to inflation.
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The Greens also said they would convert OSAP loans to grants for students with low incomes and remove interest from student debt.
