How is Ontario's four-year $6.2 post-secondary money spent?
Quality, access and affordability

Just what does $6.2 billion look like? In figures, it looks like this: $6,200,000,000. That's a lot of zeroes! Most of the Fortune 500 in Canada would like to earn that in a full year. It is half of the Government of Canada's entire projected surplus for the current fiscal year. It is also what Ontario has committed to invest in post-secondary education during the four years that started with the 2005-06 budget. This article will help you understand Ontario’s Reaching Higher plan, and the Student Access Guarantee.

Put simply, it is now easier than ever for students to attend post-secondary education; no qualified Ontario student will be denied entrance to a college or university due to lack of financial resources.

Improvements to up-front grants and student aid

• $1.5 billion of Ontario’s $6.2 billon Reaching Higher plan is invested into improvements in student aid;
• Ontario has reintroduced up-front grant assistance into OSAP, which had not been available since 1992-93 - grant assistance has been extended to students who come from families with incomes up to $75,000 (close to the median income in Ontario), helping out around 60,000 first and second year students from middle and low income families;
• The threshold for interest relief has been increased by 5 percent; helping an additional 6,000 students per year;
• Limiting student debt to a maximum of $7,000 per year;
• A $500 annual allowance has been introduced to compensate for computers and computer-related costs;
• Students have also seen an increase of 27 percent in their weekly student allowance, translating into $75 per week – the first increase in about 15 years;
• Recognition of the additional needs of students - changes to OSAP’s book and supplies allowance - almost doubling in some areas, will benefit an estimated 145,000 students;
• The Ontario Trust for Student Support makes $50 million available every year to match private and corporate cash donations to college and university endowment funds to make additional grants and bursaries available.

Want to see an example?
 

Changes to OSAP Book and Supply Allowances
	From mid-1980s to 2005-06	New Allowances: 2006-07
Arts and Sciences Textbooks	$390	$600 – up by 54%
Textbooks – Specialized Programs	$440	$1,050 – up by 139%
Professional Exams	$485	$500 – up by 3%
Non-Fine Arts Supplies	$345	$400 – up by 19%
Uniform and Minor Equipment	$230	$300 – up by 30%
Graduate Thesis Costs	$485	$600 – up by 3%
Field Trips	$705	$950 – up by 35%
Fine Arts Supplies	$530	$1,200 – up by 126%
Computer	$0	$500 – Never done before now

Tuition Framework

• The current tuition model is a regulated framework with capped tuition rates;
• Approximately 90 percent of college students have seen a tuition increase of $100 or less this year;
• Approximately 70 percent of university students have seen a tuition increase of less than $200 this academic year;
• No institution was able to increase tuition fees without signing on to the Student Access Guarantee and showing a direct correlation with an improvement in the quality of education;
• The majority of undergraduate programs may raise their tuition to a maximum of 4.5 percent in the first year of study.
  • For professional, graduate, and certain other programs, institutions may increase to a maximum of 8 percent in the first year of study but only if the institutional average is 5 percent or less;
  • Under this model, tuition increases will be capped at 4 percent in subsequent years of study.

How does Reaching Higher compare with what other governments did?

• For additional dollar students will invest in their education, the McGuinty Liberal government is investing an additional $3 in the Reaching Higher plan;
• For every additional dollar students spent toward their post-secondary education during the Bob Rae years (1990 to 1995), the NDP government invested 90¢;
• For every additional dollar students spent toward their post-secondary education during the Harris-Eves years (1995 to 2003), the PC Government took away 15¢.

Improving Quality and Access

• Ontario has established the Higher Education Quality Council to monitor and ensure improvements to both quality and access to all of our post secondary institutions;
• To receive full funding, colleges and universities are signing multi-year accountability agreements that spell out improvements to be made and the results each institution must achieve;
• For the first time, the Ontario is providing a three-year funding allocation to colleges and universities, with an historic investment of $4 billion this year, rising to $4.3 billion by 2008-09 to help our post secondary institutions:
• Hire more support staff and faculty so that students have better access to their instructors;
• Purchase additional educational resources to provide training with up-to-date technology; and
• Improve student support services to help students make the most of their time at college or university.
• Ontario is investing $1 million this year, and $2 million each subsequent year, from its Reaching Higher plan to celebrate excellence in teaching at postsecondary institutions. As many as 100 of Ontario's best faculty will be honoured each year with the Leadership in Faculty Teaching Award. Winners will receive a total of $20,000 over two years to encourage continued excellence in the classroom setting.
• Ontario has met and greatly surpassed its target of 50,000, by creating 86,000 new spaces in post-secondary institutions in the past three years;
• Ontario is establishing scholarships to help the province's college and university students broaden their learning experience by completing a portion of their studies abroad. In 2006-07, more than 150 of the new Ontario International Educational Opportunity Scholarships will be available to eligible students valued at up to $2,500 each;
• Ontario is investing $65.3 million in 2006-07 - an increase of $20 million since 2004-05 - to help small, northern and rural colleges provide high quality programs in their communities;
• Ontario invested $15 million in 2006-07 to help post-secondary institutions deliver programs that improve access to post-secondary opportunity for francophones, aboriginals, persons with disabilities and those who would be the first in their families to attend college or university. This amount will increase to $55 million in 2009-10.

Training and Apprenticeships

New Apprenticeship Registrations

Ontario has committed to increasing the number of new apprenticeship registrations to 26,000 annually in 2007-08.
In 2006, there were 21,489 new apprenticeship registrations. This puts Ontario on track to meet our annual new registration goal of 26,000 in 2007-08 — and shows that Ontarians are recognizing the value of a career in a skilled trade.

Apprenticeship Training Tax Credit

To encourage businesses to hire and train more apprentices in skilled trades, Ontario introduced an Apprenticeship Training Tax Credit that provides employers with refundable tax credits on a portion of the salary and wages of eligible apprentices.

Expanding Academic upgrading options for early high school leavers

Ontario has doubled its investment in academic upgrading for early school leavers, particularly at-risk youth. Our province has invested $4 million to support 1,600 early school leavers to improve their labour market readiness in 2005-06. This funding will grow to $15 million by 2007-08. Academic upgrading helps ensure that early school leavers can improve their labour market readiness in order to find sustainable employment.

Apprenticeship Scholarship and Employer Signing Bonus

To improve access to apprenticeships for our young people, Ontario now provides 1,500 annual scholarships of $1,000 each for students who have left high school but return to complete high school and enter apprenticeships.
Ontario is offering a $2,000 “signing bonus” to employers who hire and train students who return to complete high school and enter apprenticeships.

Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program

Offered through Ontario’s secondary school program, The Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) provides cooperative education and workplace based experiences in the skilled trades to high school students. OYAP is a successful program designed to support a number of positive outcomes including: entering apprenticeship training; staying in school to complete OSSD requirements; and entering post-secondary programs leading to technical occupations. In 2005-06 more than 20,000 students participated in this program.

Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Through the Pre-Apprenticeship Training program, people who want a career in the skilled trades can apply to a project that provides an introduction to the technical training necessary to become an apprentice in a specific trade. This bridges the gap between the skills employers need and the learning and experience of people looking for work as apprentices. In 2005-06, more than 700 people accessed this program through one of 38 projects across the province.

Co-Op Diploma Apprenticeship Program

The Ontario government is investing $11.5 million in 28 projects across the province through the Co-Op Diploma Apprenticeship Program. During the next four years, this investment will create more than 900 additional opportunities to train in the skilled trades while obtaining a college diploma. This is in addition to the 1,600 spaces created since the program was first announced in 2004.

In-School Training

There are more than 78,000 registered apprentices in the province. In 2006-07 the Ontario government will create opportunities for more than 27,000 apprentices to receive the in-school training component of their apprenticeship training at 24 community colleges and 39 training centres.

Apprenticeship Training Action Table

The Government of Ontario has established an action group to provide advice on the opportunities and challenges in Ontario’s apprenticeship system. The action group is comprised of key participants in the apprenticeship training system, including employers, labour, community leaders, educators and trainers.

The Government of Ontario’s $6.2 billion dollar infusion into its multi-faceted post-secondary education plan is the single largest investment in this sector in more than 40 years, with $1.5 billion more for student aid, and 86,000 new spaces since 2002-03. Now that’s Reaching Higher!