On Wednesday March 4, the Ontario Liberal Caucus was proud to stand with hundreds of students who gathered outside Queen’s Park to protest the government’s cuts to OSAP. The rally was electric, and our caucus met with concerned students and youth who just want to get through college and university with as little debt as they can. OSAP is Ontario’s student aid program, created to help students pay for school through loans and grants – it calculates financial need by comparing education costs (tuition, books, living) to what a student and their family are expected to contribute. Lower-income students receive the largest grants, middle-income students get a mix, and higher income students receive mostly loans or less aid.
In 2016, the Ontario Liberal government made OSAP simpler and more generous by creating the Ontario
Student Grant, giving more money as grants instead of loans. Since policy changes made by Doug Ford
after 2019, many students receive about half or more of their aid as loans, with the loan share increasing as income rises. Now, Doug Ford wants to lower OSAP grants even more, from a 85% to 25%. This means more loans and more debt for students across Ontario. Low-income students in Ontario are going to see their loan balances increase by an extra $4700 in 2026-27 – over a four-year degree, that’s almost $19,000 more debt, with no grace period for interest.
It is not good enough to tell Ontario’s young people to look harder for a minimum-wage job in fast food.
It is not good enough to tell them they will never be able to buy a house or move out of their parents’
house. It is not good enough to tell parents their kids cannot go to college or university no matter how
smart they are or how hard they work. Now is the time to put partisan politics aside. This is first and foremost about young people. It is about people who have relied, or are relying, on OSAP. The Ontario Liberals are calling on people of all ages, from every part of the province, no matter who you vote for, to help fix OSAP ASAP.
Ford Cuts, Students Pay: The Ontario Liberal Party’s Stance on OSAP
