Ford government keeps failing Ontario’s postsecondary sector

February 29, 2024

QUEEN'S PARK — Ontario Greens Leader and MPP for Guelph Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to news that credit-rating agency DBRS Morningstar has said that the Ford government’s postsecondary funding package fails to address a "fundamental lack" of revenue flexibility for Ontario universities.

“Ever since the Ford government tabled their paltry funding package for Ontario’s crumbling postsecondary sector, all we’ve heard is how utterly insufficient it is to deal with the scale of the crisis our colleges and universities are facing.

It’s a drop in the bucket that fails to even close the gap that colleges and universities are now facing due to federal caps on international student visas.

For decades, Liberal and Conservative governments have underfunded Ontario’s postsecondary sector to the brink of collapse.

Their successive failures have created a crisis – and students are the ones bearing the brunt.

Ontario Greens call on the Ford government to increase funding for Ontario’s public postsecondary sectors to address postsecondary funding shortages, including by:

• Replacing the faulty performance-based funding model with a more stable and equitable enrolment-based one; and
• Indexing the base operating grant for Ontario’s post-secondary institutions to the weighted national average.”

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