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Affordability and transit are top of mind for some Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students during this provincial election, with some telling On The Record they’re hoping for comprehensive platforms that acknowledge their struggles.
“Because I’m a student living in Toronto, I’d love to be seen in ways that acknowledge what I’m going through,” said August Kociuba, a fourth-year media production student.
“I would definitely like to see more benefits for us,” said Piper Walsh, a fourth-year creative industries student. “I want to vote for a candidate who has post-secondary students’ best interests in mind.”
“I think the most important thing for me this election would be transit,” said second-year political science student Eoghan Wheeler. “I would really like to see a more comprehensive plan on how we’re going to use transit as a method of easing congestion in the city and allowing more people in more communities to access each other and the workplace,” Wheeler said.
While most of the major parties have yet to put out a full platform, two leaders were on campus this week and OTR spoke with a third. We made attempts to get in touch with the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party but have not received a response, so we’ve included what they’ve said so far in the campaign trail as it relates to students.
Education
Ontario’s post-secondary institutions have been grappling with a funding crisis for quite some time now, with 10 out of 23 institutions reporting more than $300 million in deficits from the 2023/24 school year, according to Ontario Universities.
Last March, Ontario Universities asked Doug Ford’s government for $2.5 billion to address funding shortfalls of the past several decades to keep student services and programs intact.
Meanwhile, colleges across the province, including Centennial College just last month, have announced shutdowns of programs due to a lack of funding and a decline in international students.
While Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner all agree on the need to invest more money into post-secondary institutions, they have different plans for going about it.
Crombie said at her TMU talk at the Dais on Feb. 4 that she would like to see the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) increased and would like to “work with colleges and universities to get them the funding they need” so they won’t have to rely on international students or dip into their reserves.
Stiles also said she is interested in eliminating interest on student loans through OSAP, “but we should be replacing loans with grants,” she said at her Feb. 5 talk at TMU.
The Green Party, meanwhile, said they’re interested in reversing cuts to OSAP by converting loans to grants for low and middle-income students and eliminating interest charges on student debt, according to an emailed statement from a spokesperson to OTR. The party spokesperson also wrote that there is a plan to increase per-student post-secondary funding by 20 per cent, and to commit to annual increases to match inflation.
Ford’s government introduced a tuition freeze in 2019 that both Crombie and Stiles say they want to keep in place.
While the Ontario PC’s haven’t released their platform for education, a spokesperson for the party told CBC News earlier this week about their plans if the party is re-elected, which includes maintaining the tuition freezes and investing $1.3 billion to “stabilize the sector.”
Housing
When it comes to housing, building more homes is a top priority for Crombie, Stiles and Schreiner, and they all have different ideas of how to go about this.
For Crombie, she pledges to eliminate development charges, which are fees paid to the city to make homes cheaper, adding that she will make a fund called the “Better Communities Fund” to reimburse cities where they otherwise would have made money off the development charges.
Stiles said that a “big piece” of the solution of getting more homes built is “using public land that’s ready to go. Her party also wants to end encampments in the province through supportive housing.
“We’re going to commit to building a lot of it and fast,” Stiles said. “We’re also gonna protect people who are at risk of losing their homes because of rent issues.”
For Schreiner, he’s committing to building 310,000 co-op, non-profit housing, including 60,000 permanent supportive housing spaced with “wrap-around mental health, addictions, employment and other supports.”
“I hear from so many young people that are just feeling almost hopeless because the housing crisis is so crushing,” Schreiner said in an interview with OTR.
While the Conservatives have not released their plan on housing affordability at this time, they have announced their intent to add $2 billion to the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, which provides funding for roads and water systems.
Transit
The major parties haven’t revealed much about their plans to address transit issues so far in their campaigns.
Crombie pledged on Jan. 31 at a campaign event in Scarborough to hire 300 special constables, install platform doors in all subway stations and give transit services money for safety equipment such as cameras.
“I know many of you being urbanites and living in Toronto ride the subway, I do when I’m in Toronto, but sometimes, we don’t feel safe,” Crombie said at the Dais event. “So we have a plan to make that safe.”
As for the NDPs, removing tolls on all portions of Highway 407 was an early promise by Stiles, who vows to buy back the privately owned part.
“We’re gonna bargain this, we’re going to negotiate,” Stiles said at the Dais event. “I am not gonna tell that company what I’m willing to pay right now, but it’s gonna cost a whole lot less than some fantasy tunnel under the 401.”
Meanwhile, Ford said he endeavours to also remove tolls from Highway 407, but only on the provincially owned portion in the east, as announced at a campaign event in Pickering on Feb. 5. Ford also said he plans to “ban all congestion pricing” on municipal and provincial roadways in Ontario.
The Green Party has not yet released a plan on how they will address transportation issues but Schreiner told OTR that he hopes to make public transit more affordable and streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Vanessa Tiberio is a Toronto-based reporter with an interest in covering politics, current affairs and culture.
