By Lucas Bustinski
Following Doug Ford’s re-election on Feb. 27, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students have expressed mixed reactions regarding his third term as premier of Ontario.
These students believe there is already a lack of support from post-secondary institutions facing deficits and fear Ford will not take the necessary steps to address these issues, leading to further cuts.
Peter Ikenye, a second-year film student, said he is “quite disappointed,” and does not feel supported as a student that commutes to Toronto from Oshawa, Ont. almost every day for work and school and believes the Ford government only considers working professionals over the age of 25 and not youth.
“I just see a bunch of people that are very happy with the status quo and aren’t willing to change anything,” said Ikenye. “You hear these stories about development contracts and the stuff with Metrolinx and the stuff happening with the Science Centre and Ontario Place, and you see that there’s very little effort to deal with the sort of crisis we have with housing, I mean, the infrastructure in the city is crumbling, the transit is terrible.”
Ikenye believes that these larger developments, such as contracts with Metrolinx, Ontario Place and the Science Centre, will primarily benefit investors and feels “everyone else is being ignored.”
He said the only direct support he has seen from the Ford government is the $200 rebate and Ford’s fight for Canadian independence amid current tariff tensions with the United States.
Iain Wilson, PhD graduate and the manager at Higher Education Strategy Associates, an analytic advisement firm that consults governments and post-secondary institutions on improving higher education systems globally, said these deficits are growing because the Ontario government already spends less per full-time equivalent student compared to other provinces.
He also cited that they have not kept up funding with inflation and the recent federal cap on international students.
Juhi Bhatt, a fourth-year nursing student, called Ford’s re-election a “double-edged sword.” During her first year she worked as a nursing extern— a job similar to a personal support worker— but had her pay capped under Ford’s 2019 Bill 124, the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019.
The purpose of Bill 124 was to ensure that public sector compensation reflected the fiscal situation of the province. The bill also capped pay-increases at no greater than one per cent over a year.
According to the Ontario Nurses Association, Bill 124 drove 60 per cent of nurses out of the profession, many of whom, Bhatt said, moved to the U.S. for higher pay within their privatized healthcare system.
In Feb. 2024, the Court of Appeal for Ontario repealed the bill, allowing Bhatt to receive compensation for wages she would have earned without the cap.
“There is definitely that level of disappointment at the same time. For me…well, there’s nothing that could be done now,” said Bhatt. “I know that he does plan on investing a lot of money back into healthcare, hopefully investing more money into nurses salaries so that they stay in the country.”
On Jan. 27, the Ford government announced it would spend $1.8 billion to connect every Ontarian with a family doctor or primary care team, the ladder of which includes nurses.
Overall, Bhatt said she feels “somewhat,” supported as a student at TMU.
Wilson said to remedy the reliance on international students the government needs to pay more or post-secondary institutions need to reduce costs, but “most of the things that you do to reduce costs are going to have some impact on student experience.”
Most of these cuts come in the form of program freezes, which often lead to them being cut eventually, layoffs or smaller things like less access to professors and academic advisory staff, according to Wilson.
To help support Universities and students, Ford’s previous administration pledged $1.2 billion to the post-secondary sector in Feb. 2024. This sum is to be spread out over three years.
This comes after reports in Jan. 2024 from the Toronto Star that say nearly half of Ontario’s universities are running on deficits.
“We’ve been in a situation for a really long time, in order to meet their revenue expectations…universities have been cross subsidizing domestic students from international students,” said Wilson. “That is because, at least from their point of view, there is not enough money coming from government to cover the cost of educating your average domestic student.”
In tandem with the federal cap, Ford cut tuition by 10 per cent and froze it in 2019.
Andrew McDougall, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, says that although this cap limits possible funds a university can receive, it was in the Ford government’s best interest to keep it in place.
“Tuition goes up, not only does it fall on students, but it falls on parents. And it’s a politically unpopular sort of thing to do…the Ford government has decided that it would like to keep the tuition cap where it is for right now,” says McDougall.
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