Ontario Premier Doug Ford made an announcement on Feb. 12 regarding funding for education that has since sparked mass outrage from students and educators across the province, including here at UW. Along with a widely supported $6.4 million boost to colleges and universities in Ontario, the Premier’s government has proposed a drastic restructure to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), which would leave many students thousands of dollars more in debt once the changes come into effect in fall 2026. Additionally, Doug Ford also announced an end to the seven year tuition freeze which has been in place in Ontario. The response from all over the province has resoundingly been against the OSAP changes, with many claiming that Ford – and his government – are out of touch from the financial realities of being in post-secondary education, and beyond that, simply do not care about students at all. 

OSAP is a program available to students who live in Ontario which provides grants and loans from the federal and provincial governments to those who cannot afford post-secondary on their own. The amount which a student is awarded is based primarily on their household income, as well as other factors such as whether they are in full-time or part-time studies, and whether they have a disability. The exact formula for determining the amount a student receives is not shared publicly, however, the previous structure allowed for students to receive up to 85 per cent in grants they did not have to pay back, and 15 per cent in loans that had to be repaid. The proposed changes to the program almost completely flips the grant to loan ratio structure to cap the amount of provincial grants a student can receive at 25 per cent. This means, at the minimum, that a student using OSAP will have to pay back 75 per cent of the money they received from the Ontario government used to pay for their post-secondary education. Ford said in a press conference in February that these changes are needed to ensure the program remains sustainable, and to avoid students spending their OSAP money on non-education related purchases. 

Quickly after these changes were announced, students mobilized across Ontario to make their voices heard on the issue by organizing a province-wide walk out and protest on March 4. UW has been no exception in this fight against the proposed OSAP cuts as WUSA organized and ensured students could participate in the walk-out. Over 1,000 students joined the protest on campus along with professors, WLU student representatives, and Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife. The protest was one of the biggest on a university campus across the province. At the demonstration, students such as Hannah Oommen, a current grad student at UW, shared that, “I’ve made it through undergrad and grad school on OSAP, and it was already quite hard with loans and things like that. So I think that it’s a personal fight for me and my siblings.” Ava Tinon, another UW student at the protest, felt that the proposed cuts are a part of a broader issue: “This is an attack on [the working] class as a whole. It’s not just the students, this is part of  a wider austerity cut and it’s going to get worse. It’s going to impact wider sectors of Ontario, Canada, and the world. We are in a crisis of capitalism. The system is rotten and it has to be dealt with.” 

Many professors were also in attendance on March 4, with others even letting their class go early to allow students to participate. Siobhan Sutherland, an assistant professor of psychology at St. Jerome’s University, was one of those instructors who supported their students in this way and stated that letting her students leave class to attend the protest, “seemed like the obvious choice,” to allow for them to make their voices heard about an issue that impacts them substantially. Sutherland went on to say that other professors at UW share the student’s sentiments on the issue of cutting OSAP grants, as many faculty members relied on the financial assistance program to get through their own education. Referring to the opinions of other professors at UW, Sutherland explained that, “There is a general sense that education should be accessible—that in public institutions we want people from all backgrounds to get an education and not be financially impacted or set back because they accrued so much student debt.” Eric Lepp, an assistant professor of peace and conflict studies at CGU, echoed these sentiments of accessibility during his attendance at the protest. Lepp also stated that he thinks the proposed cuts should be reversed but that, “institutions also need support, and I don’t think the answer is putting that on students.” 

In a recent CBC article, it was reported that Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates in Toronto, responded to common concerns about the proposed cuts deterring high school students from attending university, by stating that it will not be younger students coming from high school who will be dissuaded from pursuing post-secondary education, but adult learners who have already left home and may have dependents themselves. However, Imprint spoke with WUSA president and vice-president, Damian Mikhail and Remington Zhi, after the protest, where they discussed what they have heard from students about how the OSAP cuts will affect their education plans. “We’ve already heard stories from our students telling us that they might not have come to university if the loan structure was like this, and that their younger siblings are now questioning if it’s the right choice,” explained Zhi. The vice-president went on to say however that, “I do agree that the most impacted by [the OSAP cuts] are people who are not the demographic that are most likely to access higher education, but that includes young students who are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and marginalized communities.”

Not only have students been outraged by the proposed cuts to OSAP, but many have taken personal offence to the comments Doug Ford made along with his announcement in defense of these changes. Ford commented on the proposed cuts by telling students to “stop taking basket-weaving courses,” and encouraging them to go into a STEM related program as that is where the in-demand jobs are. Maddie Cranston, another grad student at UW, shared their response to this comment by saying, “I’d like to know where these high demand jobs are for anyone right now?” With Oommen following up and stating that, “I don’t think it’s up to the government to decide what has value.” Amelia Suelzle, an environment student at UW, also shared their thoughts at the protest by saying that, “the arts are all traditionally typically female oriented programs and I think that’s a big reason that he doesn’t like those programs is because he’s sexist, on top of the fact that basket weaving is traditionally Indigenous.”

The Ontario NDP party, led by Marit Stiles, has also been quick to respond to the proposed cuts by publicly condemning the OSAP restructuring and demanding a reversal of the changes. As part of their response, the NDP party has called out the insufficiency behind their reasoning for these changes. Catherine Fife, a member of the NDP party and Waterloo MPP, shared that “the government’s own Blue Ribbon Panel Report recommended expanding OSAP grants and support for students to access post-secondary education.” The Blue Panel Ribbon Report, officially titled “Ensuring Financial Sustainability for Ontario’s Postsecondary Sector,” was a report commissioned by the Ontario government to provide advice on how to keep the post-secondary sector financially viable. Fife went on to say that, “the rationale for these cuts make no sense and run counter to the goals of improving economic outcomes and having students reach their potential in Ontario.” In response to the additional reasoning of students spending their OSAP money on non-education related purchases the Waterloo MPP explained that, “Doug Ford doesn’t understand post-secondary education, and he doesn’t care, period. His comments were meant to gaslight and insult students—he doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to acknowledge that we have the highest youth unemployment [rate] across Canada right now in Ontario. He doesn’t understand—he’s never had to make choices around, you know, paying rent or paying for groceries and tuition.”  

In an effort to combat the proposed changes to the financial assistance program, Stiles put forward a motion to reverse the cuts to OSAP and eliminate all interest on student loans. The motion required 36 Conservative MPPs to break with Doug Ford, however it was struck down in a vote on March 31. Stiles has commented on this loss by stating that this is a continued message from the current Ontario government that they do not care about students’ futures. The Ontario NDP leader went on to say in a post on Instagram that, “This is shameful. But this fight is far from over.”