FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5 October 2026
QUEEN’S PARK — Today, Ontario Liberal MPP Tyler Watt (Nepean), Critic for Colleges and Universities, was joined by student leaders from across Ontario, from high school to university, to share the impact of Doug Ford’s decision to gut OSAP.
In February, the Ford government cut the maximum share of OSAP that students receive as grants from 85 per cent to 25 per cent, leaving them to take on more debt. Students are turning to food banks, working full-time jobs while studying full time, and reducing their course loads. Some have already left their programs.
“You might look at a program and see a course. A student looks at it and sees their future,” said Saniyah Abbas, student Prime Minister at Eastdale CVI in Oshawa and a Durham District School Board Student Senator. “We should be asking, ‘What do I want to become?’ Not, ‘What future can I afford?'”
The government cited “unsustainable” costs when it made the cuts. But reporting by The Canadian Press raises serious questions about what was driving those costs. Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, Ontario spent $465 million more on student grants, and 95 per cent of that increase went to students at private career colleges. Students at just seven private career colleges received $385 million, about one in every five dollars Ontario spent on student grants. Combined grant spending for university and public college students barely changed.
Court filings reported by The Canadian Press show that the sector warned the government about suspicious activity in OSAP applications as early as January 2023. The ministry did not inspect the first of the campuses now before the courts until September 2025.
MPP Watt has written to Auditor General Shelley Spence to request a value-for-money audit of OSAP spending at private career colleges since 2020-21. The audit would cover what the government knew, when it knew it, and how much public money was involved.
“The government was warned about a small number of bad actors and sat on its hands for years. Then, instead of dealing with them, it took a hatchet to a problem that needed a scalpel, and made every student in Ontario pay,” said Watt. “Students deserve answers, so we can fix OSAP, ASAP, and give every young person a fair shot at an education.”