Algonquin College students rally to protest cuts to 30 programs

Cars honked in support as they drove past Algonquin College on Tuesday afternoon, where roughly 100 students, faculty and community members gathered outside the campus on Woodroffe Avenue to protest the planned suspension of 30 academic programs.

Speakers at the rally warned that the cuts will reduce opportunities for students, eliminate pathways to skilled careers and worsen financial pressures already facing post-secondary education in Ontario, and many argued that the crisis is a result of deep-rooted issues and gaps in the province.

Chandra Pasma, NDP MPP for Ottawa West–Nepean, told the crowd that the loss of these programs reflects years of provincial underfunding of colleges and universities.

“In 2018, when Doug Ford came to power, his government froze funding for post-secondary education, and for eight years, they did nothing about that freeze,” Pasma said. “So funding for Ontario students was so far behind the national average that we were $7,700 behind for each student at a college.”

She argued the province has made policy changes that will further burden students financially rather than address the funding gap.

“Instead of addressing that funding gap, what the province gave us was a headline that claimed to be doing a lot while actually raising tuition for students and changing OSAP from a grant form to a loan form, meaning that students will go deeply into debt with fewer career choices and fewer opportunities,” Pasma said.

In February, the Ontario government announced it would cut back its Ontario Student Loan Program (OSAP) but would also introduce ​​$6.4 billion in new funding for Ontario colleges and universities. A new long-term funding model will raise annual operating funding to $7 billion, a 30 per cent increase.

The provincial government also announced an end to its 7-year tuition freeze and will allow publicly assisted colleges and universities like Algonquin College to raise tuition by up to 2 per cent per year for three years, then up to 2 per cent or the three-year average rate of inflation in the years following. 

According to provincial data, this rate of increase is among the lowest in Canada and will cost $0.18/day for college students and $0.47/day for university students. 

But these changes aren’t enough to rectify the situation at Algonquin College, said Julie Beauchamp, senior vice-president, at the board meeting.

"While the province's proposed new funding model partially offset the current financial pressure, it does not materially change the college's underlying financial reality.”

She also said that the funding “doesn’t close the structural gap created by years of frozen tuition fees and unmatched funding," and that it’s likely tuition prices "would need to increase dramatically to approach viability."

Judy Puritt, a professor at the college and first vice-president of the faculty union Local 415, said many instructors will also be affected as fewer courses remain available.

She noted that while the elimination of 37 programs last year was catastrophic, many of the 30 programs on the chopping block this time affect local industries that hire Algonquin graduates.

“Journalism being cut is very concerning for me. When I look around my neighbourhood, how are we going to find out what’s happening?” Puritt told the Lookout. “I also worry about the potential impact of cutting the law clerk programs. 

“If we’ve got lawyers doing all of the work instead of paralegals and support staff, the cost has to be carried someplace, and it’s going to be from consumers who carry the cost.”

Puritt is also concerned about the loss of horticulture and museum programs.

“We are in the National Capital Region and have museums that require constant new ideas and new people working on sites to be able to maintain that sense of continuity and understanding of what has happened in society in the past and how that informs decision making going forward,” she said.

In many of the cut programs, students interested in certain fields of study may need to travel as far as Belleville or transfer to another institution to find their desired course.

That was the kind of situation Samuel Pilon found himself in last year, when the program he had planned to attend at La Collège La Cité in Ottawa was abruptly cut. Pilon ended up at Algonquin after Ontario’s only French-language TV & Film Production program was axed last April.

“I received an email in my junk mail basically telling me that my program is no longer being offered,” he told the Lookout. “There wasn’t any further explanation. It was just offering other programs that were similar.”

With only two weeks to decide, Pilon settled on Algonquin, but it came with additional costs: tuition was almost double, and because the campus is located across the city from where he lived, the film student said he had to relocate.

“This switch was 50 per cent more expensive just for the tuition,” he said. “I had to find an apartment. Rent is expensive. It added around $17,000 in additional expenses.”

While Pilon said he considers himself fortunate to have savings and family support, he worries many other students will face even greater barriers.

“I know that not everyone has this chance and possibility,” he said. “Students will simply have unprecedented levels of debt, and others will choose not to pursue higher education because they can’t afford it.”

Pilon was among the speakers at Tuesday’s rally and also created a documentary about the cuts called The Price of Underfunded Education.

When the Ontario government announced changes to its OSAP program and tuition increases, Algonquin stated it would reschedule its special board of governors meeting where the cuts were to be considered.

That brought a sigh of relief to those in the affected programs who were hopeful that the funding change could save at least some of the courses. However, it was later announced that the vote would proceed exactly one week later without any changes.

Puritt said the wait “added insult to injury.”

“There was no new information, no new community consultations, no hearing from anybody,” she said.

Puritt said faculty and community members are still seeking answers about the financial analysis used to determine which programs would be cut.

“We’ve asked what the contribution margin is,” she said. “What does a program have to deliver in order for it to be considered viable? What kind of percentages are you looking for?”

Those questions have still not been answered, she said.

For example, Pilon referenced the pre-health program, which is not expected to admit any new students come September. Last fall, it had an intake of 480 students.

“It is always fully booked out, and we know that students who have taken the pre-health are better situated to be successful in various nursing or other health programs,” she said.

In efforts to advocate for local industries, city council approved a motion by College Ward Coun. Laine Johnson, whose ward is home to the college, to directly address the stress that these cuts will have on the local economy and community.

The approved motion directed city staff to address a letter to Algonquin College president Claude Brulé and to the Minister of Colleges and Universities, Nolan Quinn, outlining how the cuts would impact local recruitment efforts.

The package also included letters from other industry leaders reflecting on how the cuts would impact their sectors.

Sandrine Pachels de Saint Sardos, CEO and film commissioner of the Ottawa Film Office, wrote she had “serious concerns” over the suspension of the Media and Film Foundations program.

“In recent years, live-action production in Ottawa has generated tens of millions of dollars annually in local economic activity,” she said. “For example, over $62 million in local production spending in 2025 in live-action and record figures above $100 million when including animation and in-house projects — with direct spending benefiting local labour, talent, hotels, equipment services, restaurants and other small businesses throughout the community.”

Over the last few years, Ottawa’s film industry has grown, with more than 40 projects completed recently and a record year projected ahead. Pachels de Saint Sardos said they have already been dealing with significant workforce challenges, noting current enrollment and training capacity are “insufficient to keep pace with the number of productions and the expanding economic footprint of the sector.”

Meanwhile, Sarah Chown, managing partner at the Metropolitan Brasserie, shared concerns over cuts to the Bachelor of Culinary Arts & Food Science, Hotel & Restaurant Operations Management, Tourism – Travel, Bartending, and Event Management programs.

An alumna of Algonquin herself, Chown said the hospitality industry has 70,000 current job openings and is projected to grow to 150,000 in the next five years.

“Algonquin’s proposed program closures will create a deficit of skilled Canadian professionals and those pursuing professional culinary and hospitality-related credentials in the Ottawa/Perth region,” she said. “This will magnify the already substantial pressure on restaurants to maintain operations and continue providing all the jobs that make us the fourth-largest sector employer in the country and number one source of first-time jobs.”

While the board of governors' decision has been made, Puritt said it’s never too late to reconsider. She also hopes the college will be more forthcoming about how decisions are made.

“When a student makes a claim in a paper that they submitted to me, I need them to provide the evidence,” she said. “They can’t just say, you know, that many people have been affected by this activity or the basis for the cut is you just have to trust me. Give us the evidence.”