Ontario Premier Doug Ford is showing no signs of revising his changes to student loans or tuition fees, saying OSAP “is not a freebie anymore” and that “money doesn’t grow on trees” as opposition continues to bubble.
Both the Ontario Liberals and NDP have brought groups of students to the legislature in recent days to protest against the decision to unfreeze tuition fees and move student finance to a majority loan-based system.
“I’ve heard from a lot of students from a messaging me. I appreciate their messages. Some are pretty nasty, but some are very professional,” Ford said on Monday, defending the decision more than a week after it was first announced.
“It’s not a God-given right to take taxpayers’ money. It’s a God-given right to get your college degree and university.”
Frustration with the changes has been simmering since the Ford government first announced them on Feb. 12, allowing colleges and universities to increase tuition by two per cent a year, offering them more government cash and changing how OSAP works.
The latter change is the one that has attracted the most energy, shifting public funding for students from loans to grants.
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The existing proportion of OSAP was about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, the government said, but starting this fall, students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants.
“The changes to OSAP into a primarily loans program will burden the next generation of students with more student debt than ever before,” Adaeze Mbalaja from the Canadian Federation of Students said.
“This decision will jeopardize the financial future of the next workforce of Ontario.”
On Monday, Ford repeated his assertion he supported college and university education — as long as it was in one of the sectors of the economy he views as in-demand, like health care.
“We’re investing in our education, we’re still subsidizing colleges by $7 billion,” he said. “But you’ve got to go out there and if you get an in-demand job, keep in mind we won’t have to pay back the loan for four years, and then six months after you don’t have pay it back. But get an education that you can get a job.”
Students, however, aren’t convinced, pointing to a sputtering economy and high unemployment.
According to figures on the government’s website, unemployment for people aged 15 to 24 sat at 15.6 per cent in December. It was seven per cent for people aged 25 to 54.
“This is all happening during one of the worst youth employment markets in years,” Nicholas Silver, from the University of Toronto’s graduate students’ union, said.
“We are asking our students to take on more debt with fewer opportunities to find stable employment to repay that debt after they graduate. The effects of this will be clear. Due to this uncertainty and risk, fewer students will choose to pursue post-secondary education.”
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, whose party brought students to the legislature Monday, echoed the concern.
“Doug Ford’s OSAP cuts couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ontario’s youth,” she said. “Youth unemployment is sky-high, cost of living is out of control, and now this government is making sure that students are buried in thousands of dollars of debt before they can even get their first job.”
Ford pointed out that student grants and loans come from the public purse.
“You are taking tax dollars and you have to be held accountable when you take tax dollars,” he said. “It’s not a freebie anymore. Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
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