NDP Shadow Minister for Post Secondary calls out Ford’s Trump-like policies on Ontario’s colleges and universities

QUEEN’S PARK — NDP Shadow Minister for Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Peggy Sattler (London West), released the following statement in response to the Ford government’s latest failure to deliver for Ontario’s colleges and universities:

“The Ford government is once again trying to mask chronic underfunding with control, interference, and political spin where post-secondary students are paying the price.

“What students need isn’t more control from Queen’s Park—it’s access. Right now, there are 28,000 domestic students enrolled without proper funding. By 2030, up to 100,000 qualified students could be shut out because this government refuses to invest in post-secondary education.

“As for ‘fee transparency,’ we’ve seen this all before. The Ford government is recycling their failed ideas that lost in court. Then they rebranded it again in 2024 with Bill 166. Now, they’re trying their luck one more time, pretending that turning it into legislation and promising to consult makes it new…it doesn’t.

“We’re seeing a pattern. More top-down directives, more political intrusion, and a disturbing shift toward U.S.-style rhetoric about ‘merit-based admissions.’ Ontario universities already operate with a clear admission criterion. This isn’t about fairness, it’s about distraction."