There was scant relief for young people in a pre-election Ontario budget thick with promised spending on highways and mining projects
The last provincial budget before Premier Doug Ford’s government faces Ontario voters this summer proposes to make degree qualifications available from colleges and eliminate a rebate for international students whose fees help prop up post-secondary institutions’ budgets.
The Progressive Conservatives also extended a tuition freeze for another academic year, the third time it has done so since COVID-19, but cut $685 million from its post-secondary expenses (and $1.3 billion from K-12 education) since its third-quarter 2021-22 financials.
“How is it possible that the Ford Conservatives deliberately choose to cut $1.3 billion from public education?” asked Steven Del Duca, the Liberal leader, in response to the budget. “How is it possible that in the second year of COVID, the second school year, they decided to cut $2 billion from COVID supports from our same publicly funded system?”
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