It was surprising to see the drastic changes to postsecondary loans and grants that were announced for this fall by the Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn. As reported by many outlets, the changes will lower the maximum grant that a postsecondary student could receive from 85 per cent to just 25 per cent. The remaining 75 per cent will be offered to students as a loan through the Ontario Student Assistance Program.
First, some clarification. The maximum that students could receive is 85 per cent. That “could” is important to note because OSAP is means-tested — only students at the lowest levels of the family income scale receive the maximum grant amount from the province. Many don’t receive that amount.
Second, those using OSAP to pay for their postsecondary education do not have the total cost of their schooling paid through government assistance (loan or grant), as often the housing and food portion of OSAP is not enough to cover the full cost of on-campus residence or other housing. Anyone using OSAP to pay for even a portion of their schooling is not getting the “free ride” politicians like to suggest. More shocking, but not unexpected, is the rhetoric from Quinn’s boss, Premier Doug Ford.
Ford said after the announcement that kids concerned about their schooling should not be taking a “basketweaving” program. There is no program for basketweaving, although textile-based arts can sometimes be found in fine arts programs.
More offensive is the insinuation made that students using OSAP waste the money once they receive it. This is typical of many on the right who believe that a small minority of known issues must mean everyone does this. If five per cent get it wrong but 95 per cent get it right, the program or service is deemed flawed because if five per cent got it wrong, the other 95 per cent must be too. Instead of focusing on all the successes the majority have, politicians looking to cut will look at that five per cent, go for an easy win by cutting and gain a few talking points.
Ford and Quinn both said OSAP was unsustainable at its current levels, that the program was costing too much, and cuts were needed. Quinn justified those cuts by saying Ontario’s program is too generous. Ontario is the largest province, have the most number of postsecondary schools, and the largest student base – why would the province not want the best for their students?
Anytime a government justifies cutting a program by saying that it is bringing its program in line with other governments, it is making a cut to the lowest common denominator.
If there had to be cuts to OSAP – $2.4 billion – why are we not seeing cuts in other areas? I’d start with the billions in corporate welfare that is paid by the Government of Ontario to foreign companies: $5.4 billion to Stellantis and LG Electronics for a battery plant; $2.5 billion for Honda; and $259 million for General Motors are just some of the examples of handouts by the Ford Government. Ontario and Canada already have some of the lowest corporate tax rates in the developed world. With abundant energy supplies, vast land holdings, and a workforce ready to work, what more do companies need to move to Ontario? If you said handouts, you’d be correct — those make the corporate world go around.
Meanwhile, postsecondary students will get the short end of the proverbial stick. More loans, a higher debt load, and a real impediment to seeking postsecondary education. A few years of this and Ontario could start to look like the United States, with crippling student debt that will take more than a decade to pay off.
Maybe this is part of a larger plan. Ontario has a housing crisis and new homes are not being built fast enough. Ford’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes has fallen completely flat. Saddling Ontario’s postsecondary students with crippling levels of debt that will take more than a decade to pay off will buy the government time before students can afford to consider buying a home. Cutting student funding, raising tuition, and putting a financial rock on students ties up two problems with one solution — almost as if it were woven together into one neat basket. Who is basketweaving now?
This column was originally published in the February 25, 2026 print edition of the Morrisburg Leader.
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