Multiple new reports about the state of Ontario's universities are calling for more funding from the provincial government, citing cuts under Premier Doug Ford that are pushing some institutions toward insolvency.

One plea from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Ontario states that "no province in Canada has moved more aggressively, or more consistently, to cut public funding to universities than Ontario," bluntly noting that "Ontario's funding model, if it can be called that, is simply less funding, year after year."

The 96-page doc also says that to match schools elsewhere in Canada, Ontario universities would need a whopping two times what the province is currently giving them per student. 

In the meantime, students are the ones shouldering more of the financial burden, paying nearly 25 per cent more for tuition here than they would in other provinces, based on the national average outside Ontario.

And, while students here are paying more than their counterparts in other parts of Canada, recent tuition freezes are also putting more pressure on Ontario's schools.

"The dramatic loss of provincial funding has had significant consequences for all aspects of university life and operations," the review warns, citing more student debt, a reduction in non-repayable grants and bursaries, a dramatic drop in research funding, larger class sizes, and precarious, low-paid jobs for faculty.

Multiple schools are already running annual deficits in the tens of millions, while Laurentian University famously went into creditor protection in 2021.

Other reports from the Council of Ontario Universities likewise point to growing demands and plummeting cash for institutions after "more than a decade of declining provincial grants and the cut and freeze to tuition."

The COU also notes mental health services and other aspects of university operations that are not at all covered by the province — which only provides about 25 per cent of a given school's total revenue — as well as tens of thousands of students who institutions receive no funding for at all due to domestic enrolment caps.

"A 10 per cent tuition cut in 2019 plus a four-year tuition freeze, declining operating grants and higher inflation have created a perfect storm that has placed enormous financial pressure on Ontario’s universities," the group writes in one of its multiple appeals to leaders, calling the current situation untenable.

"Universities can no longer continue to absorb cuts and freezes amidst rising inflation and costs, and many are facing deficits, with the growing risk of insolvencies. The time for government action is now."

Unfortunately for these academies, there are multiple other sectors that are also in desperate need of more government dollars after funding cuts, including the healthcare sector.

Commenting on recent emergency room closures in various parts of the province, Leader of the Official Opposition Marit Stiles told Ford that many of his recent decisions — especially regarding the controversial Ontario Place redevelopment — simply do not make sense for constituents while so many public services are struggling.

"Folks in communities are watching their nearest emergency rooms close... while this government forks over millions of tax dollars to help a private company from Austria set up shop on Toronto's waterfront for 95 years," she said in the most recent meeting of the Legislative Assembly.