LONDON – Peggy Sattler (London West), Official Opposition critic for Colleges and Universities, released the following statement in response to reports of provincial funding for postsecondary institutions:
“Does Ford understand that we are in a crisis?
“Ford has been fully aware of how decades of chronic underfunding by Liberal and Conservative governments, and five years of Ford cuts, have pushed our postsecondary institutions to the brink. Now Ford’s rumoured investment is half what his own panel of experts have recommended”
“Instead of taking serious action, Ford has encouraged unrestrained international student recruitment, enabled bad actors, rewarded PC party donors, and left everyone else out in the cold.
“We should never have gotten to this level of crisis in our colleges and university sector. We need serious solutions to get us out.”
Background
- The Blue Ribbon Panel recommended an urgent $2.5 billion investment over three years as the minimum needed just to keep colleges and universities running. And that was before the international student cap was announced.
- Ford’s investment is rumored to be $1.2 billion – not nearly enough