An Open Letter to Windsor's MPPs

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Dear MPPs Dowie and Leardi,

I am writing to express my profound dissatisfaction in your representation of me at the Legislature on March 31st.

Over the last several weeks, it has been made clear that families, students and young adults in Windsor are unequivocally opposed to the Conservative government’s plan to modify OSAPs funding framework. The changes proposed will leave students behind, and contributes to Ontario’s worsening post-secondary crisis - a crisis owed in no small part to the government’s commitment to chronic and consistent underfunding of the sector.

It bears endless repeating this crisis is one that Ontario brought onto itself. Student’s suffer from some the highest tuition costs in Canada - a direct result of the lowest per-student-funding in the country. Ontario government funds make up, on average, under 30% of post-secondary institution’s budgets, tuition makes up the rest. By voting against the motion to restore OSAP funding to the previous model, you exacerbate the affordability crisis. Simultaneously, our post-secondary sector is in a state of disrepair. The government’s frozen tuition fees, instituted now for the better half of a decade, have restricted our schools’s ability to generate operating revenue. In turn, they have relied on the only funding source the Conservatives have made available to them - international students.

It is not lost on me that Minister Quinn attempted to pin the OSAP changes on the Federal government’s reform of the student visa program. This couldn’t be more disingenous. The Province does not adequately fund our institutions, and forced a reliance on international student tuition to fill the gap. The reality we live in today is the predicted results of poor policy decisions made and quadrupled-down on for years. In her 2022 Report, Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says as much:

“Because of the reduction and freeze on domestic tuition in Ontario and lower domestic per university student funding in Ontario compared to the rest of Canada, the universities are turning towards international student revenue for financial sustainability”.

Unfreezing domestic tuition charges has allowed post-secondary institutions the opportunity to begin to repair the damage done to them over the course of the last several years. It should be obvious that removing OSAP in parallel to this change would be perceived - rightfully - as an attack on students.

Windsor is among Ontario’s top regions for income inequality and high cost-of-living relative to income. You campaigned on reducing cost-of-living. I would have expected a vote that reflects this commitment. Post-secondary graduates generate higher lifetime earnings and those earnings oft translate into higher tax revenue and local economies. Windsor, in particular, requires the latter and would benefit from more, not less, support from the Provincial government. Among a frequently cited trade war and economic aggression that uniquely targets the very heart of Windsor’s local economy, I would have expected an investment in the future of our city. Certainly, the last thing I would have hoped for was a divestment of this nature.

It is disappointing to see that the values campaigned on are not reflected within your vote, and do not consider Windsorites, Ontarians, or the future.

I look forward to your response.