FIFE, SATTLER: Ford can’t pretend Conestoga crisis came out of nowhere

WATERLOO — Shadow Minister for Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Catherine Fife (Waterloo); and Shadow Minister for Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, Peggy Sattler (London West), say the Ford government is trying to wash its hands of a crisis it helped create at Conestoga College.

“Doug Ford created a system where colleges were forced to rely on international tuition revenue because public funding was nowhere near enough,” said Fife. “Now communities, workers, and students are dealing with the fallout while the government tries to act like this is all someone else’s fault. What did they think was going to happen?”

“People are right to be angry. Imagine reading about executive payouts and luxury expenses while workers were losing their jobs and students were being let down,” continued Fife. “But the government cannot ignore years of warning signs and allowing colleges to become financially dependent on international student tuition just to survive.”

“Workers were being laid off, programs were under pressure, and serious concerns about governance had been building for years,” said Sattler. “Now the government suddenly wants to talk about financial mismanagement after standing by while this crisis grew.”

“Students and workers are the ones paying the price for a crisis this government saw coming and did nothing to stop,” added Sattler. “Ontario colleges should never have been pushed to the point where survival depended on international student tuition.”