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EDITORIAL: Take from the poor and give to the rich (Mar. 2026)

April 7th, 2026 · No Comments

Recent changes announced by the province to student funding and OSAP programs wreak havoc on a system already suffering from its mismanagement. 

Doug Ford graduated from Scarlett Heights Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke. He then attended Humber College for two months before dropping out with no diploma. He then joined the family firm Deco Enterprises, a successful sticker factory established by his father. Other than being a politician, Ford is the heir to the company and does not need further education.  

We don’t seek to slight the premier for being a politician; it is an honourable job, and at times thankless and unforgiving. However, it’s important to point out he has virtually no knowledge or experience in the post-secondary sector and is apparently disdainful of those who do. He also  was never from a “working family just trying to make a buck.” That’s just his shtick. 

It’s not surprising that he thinks students should only enter post-secondary studies with a view to immediate financial gain—a job. He lumps everything else under the contemptuous umbrella of “basket-weaving.” Ford is a transactional type of person and can’t fathom other life approaches. 

The notion that the pursuit of basic knowledge is inherently valuable not only for the student but for everyone else is beyond him. Since Ford apparently sees himself as omniscient, the whole university and college sector rather baffles him. He knows “common sense” when he sees it, and he doesn’t need further education to get it. He wants to force students into degree programs that result in immediate gratification.

In early February, the province announced a sea change in funding for students through the OSAP program effective this September. Grants will be cut from a maximum of 85 per cent to 25 per cent. If eligible, students who were previously on the hook for $20,000 for a year’s tuition and expenses, will now receive $5000, reduced from $17,000. The rest will be loans. 

The province will save nearly $1.6 billion annually on their cuts to OSAP. They are promising an equal amount to colleges and universities with additional financial support. They are quite literally taking money from students in need and handing it to the institutions. At the same time, the province is allowing modest increases of 2 per cent in tuition. So for students from relatively wealthy families the changes will amount to a couple of hundred bucks. 

For students from poor families this is “relatively regressive policy” said Glen Jones, a professor of higher education at the University of Toronto. This is not about increasing access but “essentially rewarding, to some extent, the wealthiest population and taking money to fund the system from the most needy.”

Ontario’s post-secondary sector has been struggling for years. Despite high tuition rates, capped finally in 2019, colleges and universities here have faced the lowest provincial funding in the country. This forced the sector to invite more international students whose tuition was not capped. When the federal government reduced the number of study permits by 49 per cent,  schools were left in the lurch. 

The province did not plan for this. They deprived the sector for decades of adequate financial support and allowed tuitions to skyrocket. The Conservative government then froze tuition rates and sent the sector searching for replacement dollars. 

Many students planning to enroll in post-secondary education in Ontario this September face an existential choice: Take the loans and live with paying them off well into your 30s or give up that gamble, skip the education, and take the low-paying job. The latter option probably involves reducing earning potential for life and likely never owning a home. Education in Ontario is rapidly becoming a luxury for the privileged, with policy driven by a man who probably could not even weave a basket if his life depended on it.

Doug Ford is the antithetical Robin Hood: he takes from the poor and gives to the rich.

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Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion

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