MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is from a longtime former faculty member with the design and visual arts program at Georgian College in Barrie.
According to the CBC, Immigration Minister Marc Miller just announced new limits to the international student program, including a 35 per cent reduction in the number of study permits it issues this year.
Foreign students now outnumber Canadians at 10 of Ontario’s 24 publicly funded colleges.
The cap comes in response to a recent surge in international students and concerns that some institutions are relying on international enrolments to boost revenues, without offering necessary housing or a quality education.
In 2019, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government cut tuition fees by 10 per cent and has frozen them at that level since then. That forced institutions to increase their dependence on tuition fees from international students, which are considerably higher than those for Canadian students.
Steve Orsini, president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities, said many universities are already in perilous financial situations and at least 10 Ontario universities were already forecasting a combined operating deficit of $175 million this year, growing to $273 million next year.
Meanwhile, MPP Jill Dunlop, minister of colleges and universities, is silent and her money handout appearances have become fewer. Isn’t it time to put up some money for those institutions that you are responsible for? What say you, honourable minister?
Allan Baker
Oro-Medonte
