It’s certainly not Doug Ford’s rich friends. But that’s who he’s selling off our public education system to.
It’s time to tell him where our money belongs – in our backyards, not in his corporate friends’ pockets.
Send an email to Doug Ford, your MPP and the Minister of Colleges now
Ontario’s roads, electricity, plumbing, health care, and more depend on skilled workers trained in our public colleges.
But since 2021, Ford has been defunding our colleges while cutting multi-million dollar cheques to his corporate friends through the Skills Development Fund (SDF).
It’s a $2.5 billion fund that operates mostly in the dark. Unlike our public colleges, there is virtually no public data available on the outcomes of many of the projects it funds.
This is money that should be going to responsible places with education standards – like union training halls, or colleges – where every dollar is accounted for.
But corporate giants are also getting massive handouts of taxpayer money from this fund. These corporations aren’t being held to the same standards of reporting – and some, like Scale Hospitality, don’t even meet the qualifications.
Just four corporations – Scale Hospitality, Agnico Eagle Mines, Ontario Shipyard, and Canadian Niagara Hotels – received enough SDF funding since 2023 to keep a small public college open for a year.
These private companies are getting our money to train people to work for them – “training” that won’t make our kids employable anywhere else.
This year alone, the Ford government cut:
- more than 10,000 jobs across the college system,
- and more than 650 public college programs.
These reckless cutbacks come at a tremendous cost at a time when unemployment in Ontario – for youth, especially – is at a record high.
Not every kid will go to university – and they deserve local education options other than corporate training.
We can sustainably fund a system that maintains access to a public college education and meaningful skills training opportunities – without handing over public funds to corporations.
We can’t afford to lose our colleges. Thousands upon thousands of young Ontarians depend on colleges for the opportunity to build a better life. But now, Ford is selling their futures away.
IT’S TIME TO
Email your MPP and the Minister of Colleges to demand that funding be reinstated for Ontario’s public colleges! We’ve already drafted the email for you, so all you have to do is fill in the form and hit send.