TORONTO – Chris Glover MPP (Spadina–Fort York), the Official Opposition NDP’s critic for Colleges and Universities, has issued a statement in response to today’s announcement by Doug Ford that a scaled down version of York University’s Markham campus will go ahead without any capital funding from the province:
“The people of Markham and York University have stepped up to fill a gap created when Doug Ford scrapped planned university campuses in Markham, Brampton and Milton. Unfortunately, Ford’s refusal to fund this incredibly important campus extension sends the troubling message to universities and colleges that this government will never invest in building, repairing, expanding or making more accessible university and college campuses.
In fact, by cutting this funding, Ford is telling public universities to borrow, to privatize and to hike tuition to keep up with all building and repair needs.
Our province is growing fast, with more young people who need to learn the skills to succeed in the new technology-driven economy and more mid-career professionals who need to re-train amid massive COVID-19 job losses. It’s the Ford government’s job to invest in higher education to make Ontario the very best place in the world to study, not to force universities and colleges to borrow money, privatize and hike tuition to pay for the facilities students deserve.”
