OFL Statement: Solidarity with Ontario Students — Reverse Course on OSAP Changes Now, Premier Ford!

TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is calling on Ontario Premier Doug Ford to immediately reverse planned changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), warning the governments planned changes will increase student debt and restrict access to post-secondary education.

“Ontario’s post-secondary system has been pushed to the brink by years of underfunding,” said OFL President Laura Walton. “Doug Ford’s recent funding announcement acknowledges this reality, but it does not repair the damage or stop the government from shifting costs onto students and workers already struggling with an affordability crisis across the province.”

The OFL says Ontario’s per-student funding remains below the Canadian average and overall public investment is still lower than 2018 levels.

“This is not an historic investment, it’s a partial restoration after years of declining investment, now is the time to invest heavily across all pathways to education.”

“Ontario students already pay some of the highest tuition in Canada. Making education more expensive during a cost-of-living crisis puts opportunity further out of reach.”

The OFL has grave concern with the government’s planned OSAP restructuring and warns that shifting aid from grants to loans will increase debt and disproportionately harm low- and modest-income students, racialized and Indigenous students, students with disabilities, and those in rural and northern communities.

“Downloading costs onto students is not fiscal responsibility, it’s austerity,” said OFL President Walton. “A generation should not graduate into a lifetime of debt simply for trying to build a future.”

The OFL is also warning that narrow funding priorities focused on short-term labour market needs risk undermining research, the arts, and social sciences, while continued underfunding has already led to layoffs across the system, especially with contract faculty, program cuts, larger class sizes, and reduced supports across colleges and universities.

“If the government is serious about stabilizing Ontario’s post-secondary system, it must strengthen public institutions and expand access for all Ontarians, not weaken them with additional barriers to participation,” said Laura Walton.

The OFL is calling on the provincial government to:

• Raise per-student funding to at least the Canadian average;
• Reverse tuition increases, and provide adequate direct funding across the post-secondary education sector;
• Restore OSAP to a grant-based model;
• Ensure transparent and equitable funding allocation to all pathways to post-secondary education; and
• Strengthen public institutions rather than rely on more privatization schemes.
  
  

The OFL supports efforts to protect and expand accessible post-secondary public education, including the Ontario NDP’s campaign to Save OSAP. The OFL endorses and fully supports the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario’s “Hands of our Education” Campaign.

The Ontario Federation of Labour represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit http://www.ofl.ca/ and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and X.

For more information, please contact:

Rob Halpin
General Secretary
Ontario Federation of Labour
GenreralSecretary@ofl.ca

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