Two Ontario party leaders laid out their plans to help young people deal with the affordability crisis, promising to reduce student debt and youth unemployment.
The pledges outlined by Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie and NDP Leader Marit Stiles on the campaign trail Tuesday came as Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford joined a diplomatic push in Washington, D.C., in his capacity as Ontario premier.
Crombie said she would eliminate interest on student loans, create 40,000 paid internships and apprenticeships through tax credits to companies and make student residences more affordable.
“Ontario’s Liberals have a plan to smash our unemployment rate in half,” Crombie said at a campaign stop in Toronto.
“We’re also going to ensure that you have a family doctor, and we’re also going to promise you that you won’t be saddled with student loans and student debt.”
Crombie would extend the amount of time needed to repay Ontario Student Assistance Program loans and increase the income threshold when those repayments begin to $50,000.
She said she would also cap international student enrolment at 10 per cent at all Ontario colleges and universities.
“We’ve got to open up spaces for our own students, but also we have to fund our colleges and universities properly,” Crombie said. “Because right now, what’s happening is they’re relying on foreign students to pay the bills, and that is not sustainable.”
Maureen Adamson, the interim president and CEO of Colleges Ontario, which represents and advocates for the province’s colleges, said applying a 10 per cent cap on international students would be “another crushing blow to a critically underfunded sector.”
“Tuition has been cut and frozen for six years and without adequate operating grants, campuses will continue to close and programs will be suspended impacting communities and jobs,” Adamson said in an emailed statement.
“Ontario colleges are not sustainable without adequate provincial funding to address our domestic student population and meet current workforce shortages.”
Stiles said her party would introduce rent control, turn student loans into grants and eliminate interest on student loans.
“We need to take the pressure off of students,” Stiles said at a campaign stop in Kitchener, Ont.
She said post-secondary programs are being cut across the province.
“That means that students are not getting into the programs they need, and of course we’re losing important jobs,” Stiles said.
Both Stiles and Crombie said they would keep tuition frozen for domestic students and they would increase funding to post-secondary institutions.
Ontario’s colleges and universities have been struggling financially for several years. Ford’s Progressive Conservative government introduced a 10 per cent tuition cut for domestic students in 2019 as it cancelled the previous Liberal government’s free tuition program for low- and middle-income students, and has frozen fees at that level.
Post-secondary institutions, particularly colleges, increased their dependence on international students, which saw many colleges’ enrolments grow significantly in the following years.
A government-commissioned report recommended ending the tuition freeze and increasing per-student funding to the institutions.
Last year, Ford’s government responded by increasing funding to the sector by $1.2 billion, which was about $1 billion less than what the report recommended. Ford also chose to keep tuitions frozen.
The problem for post-secondary institutions was compounded by the federal government’s moves on immigration, which included a cap on international student visas introduced in January 2024.
Colleges were hit particularly hard by the limits on international students.
Ford is meeting with American lawmakers and business leaders in Washington, D.C., over two days as part of a joint mission with other premiers to stave off planned U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.
Ford called a snap election set for Feb. 27, saying he needs a new mandate to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Stiles, Crombie and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner have all said the election is unnecessary, a waste of money and nothing short of a power grab by Ford while he’s ahead in the polls.
Elections Ontario has said the budget for the election is $189 million.
— With files from Rianna Lim in Toronto and Maan Alhmidi in Kitchener, Ont.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2025.
