FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 January 2026
OTTAWA, ON – Today, Tyler Watt, MPP for Nepean and Ontario Liberal Critic for Training, Colleges and Universities, issued the following statement calling on Premier Ford to address the sector’s multi-billion-dollar funding gap – and to reinvest any money recovered from his lawsuit against Keel Digital Solutions into Ontario’s colleges and universities:
Ontario’s post-secondary system is in crisis. Universities have the lowest per-student funding in Canada, and colleges are being forced to cut programs and jobs simply to stay afloat.
Doug Ford cut and froze college tuition without increasing base funding, forcing colleges to rely on international students. When international enrolment was later capped, he offered no plan to fill the gap he created.
Universities say they need a $1.2 billion funding increase next year. Colleges are asking for an additional $1.5 billion after terminating more than 600 programs and roughly 8,000 jobs.
With the announcement that 30 more programs will be cut from Algonquin College, including pre-health programs like the one I took to get into nursing, the need for stable, multi-year funding in our post-secondary education system has never been clearer.
When colleges and universities are forced to cut programs, the impact reaches far beyond campus walls. These cuts weaken Ontario’s workforce, slow our economy, and hit critical sectors — from health care and skilled trades to technology, manufacturing, and small business. At a time when employers are crying out for workers and people are worried about job security, undermining the institutions that train nurses, tradespeople, and professionals makes no economic sense.
While the post-secondary education system is calling out for funding, Ford is allowing his Minister of Colleges and Universities to shovel money to the government’s friends, like Keel, only for them to misuse it. That money should have gone to Ontario’s post-secondary institutions.
Any money recovered from Ford’s lawsuit against Keel must go straight to colleges and universities – but that would be just a fraction of a drop in a very big bucket.