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When Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government drastically cut student assistance grants earlier this year, it cited “unsustainable” costs, but new figures show nearly all of the recent growth was among career college students.
Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request shows that between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years, the province spent $465 million more on Ontario Student Assistance Program grants, and 95 per cent of that went to private career college students.
That points to a problem of the government’s own making and the solution did not have to penalize students at universities and publicly funded colleges, opposition critics said.
“Doug Ford used the rising cost of OSAP as his excuse to gut student aid, slashing the grant portion from 85 per cent down to 25 per cent and leaving students to take on more debt,” Liberal critic for colleges and universities Tyler Watt wrote in a statement.
“These numbers show that excuse doesn’t hold up.”
When students apply for Ontario financial aid they are also assessed for federal assistance, and the new data shows that while overall both the Ontario and federal portions of what students have been receiving are on the rise, one category stands out.
University students received about $370 million in Ontario Student Grants in 2023-24, an amount that actually decreased the following year to about $354 million. Students at publicly funded colleges received $349 million in 2023-24 and $386 million the next year. Canada Student Grants rose at relatively similar paces.
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Career college students, however, received about $554 million in Ontario Student Grants in 2023-24, and the following year they received about $994 million.
That is more than the amount of Ontario Students Grants for public college and university students combined.
During the same time period, the amount of Canada Student Grants those same students received was far lower, and was a smaller relative increase, from $201 million in 2023-24 to $338 million the next year.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said with most of the increase coming in career college usage, it looks like the government was just looking for an excuse to cut all OSAP spending.
“I think they were unwilling to only make cuts that impacted their friends at the private career colleges,” she said.
“It just shows me that they never actually explored options that would have saved the program, and it’s students that are going to pay the price.”
When Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government drastically cut student assistance grants earlier this year, it cited “unsustainable” costs, but new figures show nearly all of the recent growth was among career college students.
Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request shows that between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years, the province spent $465 million more on Ontario Student Assistance Program grants, and 95 per cent of that went to private career college students.
That points to a problem of the government’s own making and the solution did not have to penalize students at universities and publicly funded colleges, opposition critics said.
“Doug Ford used the rising cost of OSAP as his excuse to gut student aid, slashing the grant portion from 85 per cent down to 25 per cent and leaving students to take on more debt,” Liberal critic for colleges and universities Tyler Watt wrote in a statement.
“These numbers show that excuse doesn’t hold up.”
When students apply for Ontario financial aid they are also assessed for federal assistance, and the new data shows that while overall both the Ontario and federal portions of what students have been receiving are on the rise, one category stands out.
University students received about $370 million in Ontario Student Grants in 2023-24, an amount that actually decreased the following year to about $354 million. Students at publicly funded colleges received $349 million in 2023-24 and $386 million the next year. Canada Student Grants rose at relatively similar paces.
Career college students, however, received about $554 million in Ontario Student Grants in 2023-24, and the following year they received about $994 million.
That is more than the amount of Ontario Students Grants for public college and university students combined.
During the same time period, the amount of Canada Student Grants those same students received was far lower, and was a smaller relative increase, from $201 million in 2023-24 to $338 million the next year.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said with most of the increase coming in career college usage, it looks like the government was just looking for an excuse to cut all OSAP spending.
“I think they were unwilling to only make cuts that impacted their friends at the private career colleges,” she said.
“It just shows me that they never actually explored options that would have saved the program, and it’s students that are going to pay the price.”
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