Happy election season Ontario! On February 27th, voters across the province are heading to the polls to choose who they want to represent their needs at Queen’s Park. Who makes up a large part of the composition of these voters? You - students!
As a part of OUSA’s Get-Out-The-Vote campaign, we’ll be posting blogs about the role of the provincial government in post-secondary education and the value of the student vote. To kick off our series, let’s look at what exactly the province does to manage your post-secondary experience. In fact, when you think about the three levels of government, the provincial level has the biggest role to play in your university journey. Moreover, individual institutions make more detailed policy and procedural decisions. All that to say, there are several agents that make post-secondary education work, but since we’re focusing on the provincial election and they play a substantial part anyways, we’ll keep this overview to that level.
Legal and Regulational Oversight: The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act is the primary, legally binding document that connects the provincial government to post-secondary institutions. In it, the province has laid out certain obligations of both themselves and universities pertaining to various subjects matters like the composition of institutional sexual violence, mental health, and anti-hate and racism policies, the conditions of borrowing through student loans, as well as the requirements for communicating the cost of learning materials, among several others. The Ministry of Colleges and Universities can also send out directives and manuals that instruct institutions on how to carry out a certain process - like setting tuition and ancillary fees or reporting data back to the Ministry.
Financial Aid: OSAP and the bursaries under it for students with disabilities, first-generation students, Indigenous students, those who are deaf or hard of hearing, and those currently or formerly in society care are under the province’s control. The Government of Canada provides a substantial portion of these loans, but ultimately learners are applying and accessing this aid through provincial mechanisms.
Institutional Funding: This is what OUSA refers to when we talk about operational funding. Universities have a couple of different sources of revenue, but tuition and provincial government grants are the main ones (if you want to read more about funding models, you can check out an old OUSA blog here). These funds help support the cost of delivering academic programs, which include faculty and staff salaries. There is also funding provided through Strategic Mandate Agreements - each publicly-assisted university has one of these agreements with the government. They basically outline how institutions plan to achieve success in certain areas (metrics) and how much money the government will give them if they reach those targets. Working to accomplish these goals ultimately shapes what services and programs your university prioritizes so that they can achieve maximum success and receive the funds promised in the agreement.
Mental Health: The provincial government provides annual funding through the Mental Health Worker Grant and Mental Health Services Grant, which help institutions maintain on-campus resources. They also support the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health, a knowledge hub that aims to strengthen and equip front-line service workers with relevant skills for mental health care. Virtual services like Good2Talk and Get-A-Head, that students can interact with and receive support from directly, are also funded by the province.
Campus Safety: The province provides the Campus Safety Grant to institutions annually which can be used for various safety-based initiatives on campus, including measures to tackle gender-based and sexual violence. And as mentioned before, they also have laws for universities that govern the content and procedural components for sexual violence policies.
Work-Integrated Learning: Sometimes, the government will provide investments into work-integrated learning. Depending on the type of investment, money might go to organizations that arrange placements and internships, or post-secondary institutions might have to apply for this funding. Notably, students working as part of a post-secondary program are not considered workers under the Employment Standards Act - so entitlements to pay, breaks, and hours of work are not protected for students by law.
Virtual Learning: The COVID-19 pandemic was a huge catalyst for increased government funding towards virtual learning at Ontario’s institutions. This includes funds for equipment and infrastructure that facilitate virtual learning and investments for eCampus Ontario, who help develop online programming and learning materials that complement teaching content (you may have even used their resources in the past!)
Infrastructure: The provincial government provides funding every year for institutions to revitalize, repair, and upgrade infrastructure on campuses through the Facilities Renewal Program. Buildings on university campuses are getting older and older, and the province offers some financial assistance in order to help fix decaying and weak infrastructure. Ultimately, this aims to improve your physical environment on campus whether it be accessibility, safety, technology, or even a simple joy like more natural light.
So, as you can see, the provincial government plays a significant part in shaping your post-secondary education. You might not directly see or hear about what they are doing, but through some funding mechanisms and legislation, they actually have a good chunk of oversight in how your post-secondary journey unfolds. Institutions have a decent degree of autonomy to shape policies, programs, and projects that cater to the needs of their student body, but these are under some confines of what the province tells them that they can do.
That’s why entering a provincial election, especially as a post-secondary student, carries a unique significance. The commitments to post-secondary and how it is championed at Queen’s Park can look different depending on who you choose to represent you. Depending on which aspect(s) of your education (and life, generally) you care about, you can become an informed voter by looking at the platforms of each party on their website. OUSA has an elections website, where we will be keeping up-to-date information about the voting process and each party’s platform.
Stay tuned for the rest of OUSA’s Get-Out-The-Vote campaign through the remaining blogs on our website and our social media (@ousahome)!