A major union is again sounding the alarm for Ontario’s public colleges as international student enrolment drops to a trickle, programs are cut and major layoffs take place.
On Wednesday, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union released information that suggests the sector faces close to 10,000 job losses and the cancellation or suspension of some 600 programs.
A recent arbitration decision on an issue between the union and the College Employer Council shed some light on the extent of difficulty the sector was going through after an early 2024 federal cap on international students.
The arbitrator wrote in his decision that 23 of Ontario’s 24 public sector colleges reported a 48 per cent decline in enrolment of international students between September 2023 and the following year.
As a result, by the spring of 2025, more than 600 programs were cancelled or suspended at those colleges. Four institutions have also closed campuses or announced they will close them.
The arbitrator called the situation “alarming,” pointing to layoffs numbering more than 8,000 people across 19 of Ontario’s 24 colleges. OPSEU calculates that the number is almost 10,000 if you include layoffs at the colleges that have not yet submitted their information.
“We’re seeing one of the largest mass layoffs in Ontario’s history,” OPSEU president JP Hornick said Wednesday. “This is bigger than the Hudson’s Bay liquidation, which laid off 8,000 employees across Canada.”
The current pain at Ontario’s colleges can be traced back to the introduction of the federal cap on international students last year.
In that case, Ottawa limited the number of students who could get study permits in each province. The Ford government kept university enrolment steady and reduced the numbers at colleges.
It was a hammer blow to the sector’s revenue, which had for years relied on international students for funding. Government documents estimate that, before the cap, roughly 32 per cent of college revenue came from those joining from abroad.
OPSEU argues that a reliance on international students allowed the provincial government to shirk its funding responsibilities.
“Our communities are paying the cost of a crisis manufactured by provincial underfunding — and workers are prepared to build the provincial, coordinated fightback we need to realize a better college system,” the union said in a statement.
While cuts are being made on campuses, annual salary disclosure data shows pay for leadership at the top of Ontario’s colleges has grown. The best-paid college president in Ontario earned more than $600,000 in 2024, while the second-highest pay was almost $500,000.
Critics of the Ford government have argued it must offer better funding to public colleges to avoid further cuts, which could destroy jobs in some smaller communities.
After the international student cap came in, the province unveiled just over $1 billion in funding for the sector. That was less than the number recommended by the province’s own expert panel.
In the spring, it offered another $750 million for the sector, tied to STEM programs.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security said the claim that the government had deliberately underfunded post-secondary education to create a crisis was “baseless and categorically false,” pointing to recent investments.
They pointed out that the cap on international students came from the federal government and said cuts were decided by individual institutions.
“Decisions related to programming, campus closures, human resources, operational and budgeting decisions lie solely with each institution,” the spokesperson said.
“As we always have, our government will continue making the necessary investments into our publicly-assisted system to ensure our students get into programs that launch successful careers and positively contribute to our economy.”
Cuts at Ontario colleges leading to nearly 10,000 job losses, union says
Close to 10,000 college faculty and staff have either been let go or are projected to lose their jobs amid hundreds of program cancellations and suspensions since last year, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union said Wednesday as it warned of serious trouble in the sector.
The union representing some 55,000 college faculty and support staff said the cuts amounts to “one of the largest mass layoffs in Ontario’s history” as colleges grapple with a funding crisis.
“This is bigger than the Hudson’s Bay liquidation, which laid off 8,000 employees across Canada,” OPSEU president JP Hornick said at a press conference outside Centennial College’s Story Arts Centre campus in Toronto, which is expected to close in the summer of 2026.
“(About)1.5 million Ontarians, nearly 1 in 10, have seen a campus closure in their community,” Hornick said.
An arbitrated faculty contract between the union and the College Employer Council released last week said the federal government’s cap on international students led to a dramatic decline in enrolment and tuition revenue, and the cancellation or suspension of more than 600 college programs.
The document showed 23 of 24 colleges in Ontario have reported a 48 per cent decrease in first-semester enrolment of international students from September 2023 to September 2024.
It said 19 colleges have reported current and planned staff reductions totalling more than 8,000 employees as of June, noting the data was incomplete as some colleges hadn’t reported their layoffs.
The union said the layoffs and program suspensions will have generational impacts and college workers are prepared to fight back against the cuts.
“We need strong colleges today for the accessible, low-barrier job training that they offer, especially in the face of trade wars that are undercutting and restructuring our economy,” Hornick said.
“But instead we are bleeding jobs.”
Hornick said the suspended and cancelled programs are not only those primarily attended by international students.
“It’s also programs we domestically need, programs like nursing, child and youth care, environmental technologies, specialized art training that is not offered anywhere else,” Hornick said.
Among them is the culinary management college program in Thunder Bay, which Hornick said is the only one of its kind within 1,000 kilometres that has supported food security in the north.
The union said the Ontario government and the colleges “never intended” to tell the public about the full scope of job and program cuts and that its workers fought “tooth and nail to get this information.” Hornick also said the province has been chronically underfunding post-secondary education.
A spokesperson for Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn said OPSEU’s claims against the government are “baseless and categorically false.”
“In the last 14 months alone, we have provided unprecedented amounts of new funding to our publicly-assisted postsecondary sector, with over $2 billion in new funding into our colleges and universities, on top of the $5 billion we put into the sector every year,” Bianca Giacoboni said in an emailed statement.
“Due to the federal government’s unilateral changes to the international student system, difficult decisions are being made across the country in the post-secondary sector,” Giacoboni said, adding that a college funding model review is set to begin this summer.
The College Employer Council, the bargaining agent for the province’s publicly funded colleges, also disputed some of the union’s claims.
“CEC has been informing OPSEU about the pending severity of this situation since Jan. 29, 2024. To suggest this information has been hidden from anyone is obviously wrong,” CEO Graham Lloyd said in an emailed statement.
“All colleges have specially designated union committees that are consulted about all layoffs, suspensions and voluntary retirement packages for union employees...Any suggestion that the union has not been aware of the extent of the layoffs is simply inaccurate.”
Lloyd said the 10,000 reported layoffs represent a staff reduction of about 17 per cent in a workforce of more than 60,000.
“This is certainly unfortunate but is not proportional to the 45 per cent reduction in student enrolment,” he said.
While OPSEU said that Centennial College alone had suspended more than 100 programs, the school disputed that number, saying it suspended 54 programs in 2025.
“Centennial is facing significant financial pressures due to external factors, including the federal policy shifts related to international students, which has reduced enrolment numbers, alongside a broken funding model,” the college said.
“Given that these challenges are sector-wide, we are working with sector partners to address these headwinds in a holistic way so that we can continue to serve the economic needs of Ontario.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2025.
