George Brown Polytechnic has triggered a “mass termination” process under provincial labour rules, signalling deep cuts as the college grapples with intensifying financial strain and a sharp drop in enrolment.
The Toronto college has indicated it is laying off 51 employees — 22 hourly and 29 salaried — according to a government-required notice mandated for “mass terminations” when employers plan to let go of 50 or more staff within a four-week period.
The “Form 1,” dated March 4 and seen by the Star, attributes the circumstances to “adapting to shifting government policies and the significant enrolment and budget pressures.”
This follows 27 faculty layoffs in January and February from the hospitality and business schools, according to the faculty union. The union also said seven faculty in construction and engineering were laid off in early March and 13 in liberal arts and communications received notice this week. Faculty union representatives said they had not previously seen a Form 1 posted at the school before and noted that management has indicated further layoffs are expected.
The union representing support workers at the college did not respond to the Star.
A spokesperson for George Brown said the “difficult decision to reduce some employee positions” was “a last resort, taken only after exploring all other cost-saving measures and following a comprehensive review of program delivery, workload and operational requirements.”
The spokesperson added that the institution “is committed to delivering high-quality programs that prepare students for meaningful careers across a range of industries,” and has had to make workforce and program adjustments to ensure long-term sustainability.
The layoffs come as current full-time enrolment has fallen 29 per cent to 15,889 compared with winter 2025, with particularly steep declines at the Casa Loma and downtown St. James campuses. At St. James, where several hospitality and culinary arts programs were suspended last fall, the campus is operating at just over half its capacity from this time last year.
“We know there are numerous factors impacting our sector that would lead to a certain degree of economic strain in any case, but it’s clear that years of financial mismanagement has brought us to this breaking point at George Brown,” said Jeff Brown, lead steward for George Brown faculty (OPSEU Local 556). “And now it is faculty and staff paying the price.”
Across the province, colleges have already suspended or cancelled more than 600 programs and faced roughly 10,000 layoffs amid a crisis fuelled in part by the federal cap on international students and years of stagnant funding.
But even with Ontario announcing last month that it would lift the tuition freeze and introduce a new long-term funding model set to deliver an additional $6.4 billion to the province’s post-secondary sector, George Brown president Gervan Fearon told the college community in a February email that he did not expect the changes to resolve the institution’s broader financial challenges.
“It will be necessary to continue to advance measures aimed at ensuring our financial stability into the future, including both mitigation and transformation activities, while remaining committed to supporting students and employees,” he wrote.
Slides for a faculty meeting last week, seen by the Star, say that all department budgets have been cut by six per cent, citing a “severe drop in international enrolment, the drop in domestic enrolment across the institution, the multi-year tuition freeze and low government grant, and rising labour costs.” While the provincial investment was noted as welcomed, the slides underscore Fearon’s February warning that additional measures will still be needed to ensure long-term stability.
“What we’ve seen at George Brown over the past few months is a clear shift in the justification the college is providing for faculty and staff layoffs,” said union steward Brown. “Last year, the focus was on specific program closures and suspensions leading to job losses in those areas, but now senior management is telling us that there need to be cuts across the board.”
A spokesperson for the college said “the impact of enrolment changes is being felt across the institution, not only in academic divisions … as a result, efforts to achieve financial sustainability are being shared broadly across the organization.”
Last year, the college offered voluntary retirement and early exit packages to staff, with payouts varying depending on employment group and length of service, but with a maximum of six months’ salary.
Earlier this week, Humber Polytechnic told staff that it would be proceeding with layoffs after not enough employees opted for a voluntary exit package to fully address the college’s projected fiscal gap for 2026-27.
Humber would not share how many took the buyout or the expected number of layoffs — although the president told staff in an email that layoffs had already concluded in administration.
On Monday, Humber posted its own “Form 1,” noting that four salaried employees were to be terminated.
Under the Employment Standards Act, provincially regulated employers must provide, in the case of a “mass termination,” enhanced notice based on the number of employees who have been laid off. Group severances of between 50 and 199 individuals require eight weeks’ notice.
Humber spokesperson Andrew Leopold said the requirement reflects “aggregate employment changes across the institution … including a combination of terminations and the conclusion of fixed-term contracts, rather than a single event or changes occurring at one location.”
He added that the posting does not “in itself, indicate that additional terminations will occur, nor does it represent a forecast of future employment decisions.”
Neither Miloš Vasić, president of Humber’s faculty union, in his eight years with the union, nor Tom Tomassi, president of George Brown’s faculty union, in his 48 years at the college, say they have ever seen their institutions post such a notice.
