New provincial legislation could lead to significant changes for student life in Ontario.
Bill 33—the Supporting Children and Students Act—proposes sweeping changes to how post-secondary institutions operate. Introduced
on May 29 by Minister of Education, Paul Calandra, this legislation would allow the Lieutenant Governor in Council to regulate which student fees are mandatory at post-secondary institutions and implement new regulations surrounding admission processes.
In a press release on the Ontario Newsroom website, Calandra justifies the Bill as a way of “strengthening accountability and transparency,” and ensuring “every dollar invested is preparing students with practical skills for good-paying, stable careers.”
In an interview with The Journal, Vice-President (University Affairs), Alyssa Perisa, explained how Queen’s campus would be negatively affected if the Bill results in students being allowed to opt out of mandatory AMS fees.
“Without the AMS, you wouldn’t be able to run a club. There’d be no student-run events,” Perisa said. “The Campus Affairs Commission gave out $31,000 in grants and bursaries last year, and the Social Issues Commission will be giving out $35,000 in grants. That’s more than $60,000 given back to the students.”
The Commissioner of External Affairs, Edlira Ballaj, ArtSci ‘26, echoed the same concerns on how Bill 33 could impact on-campus services.
“Services like Walk-home, Peer Support Center, Food Bank, the Media Center, my commission as a whole, these services rely on AMS,” Ballaj said in an interview with The Journal. “So, when the AMS itself is at risk, all these other services will also be at risk and diminish.”
This isn’t the first time post-secondary institutions have been threatened, with Bill 33 mirroring the Student Choice Initiative of 2019, which allowed students to opt out of paying certain ancillary fees deemed “non-essential” by the provincial government, before ultimately being struck down in court that same year.
“In 2019, the Student Choice Initiative was actually enacted for that year, and we had to make our mandatory AMS membership fee optional,” Ballaj said. “That caused a lot of instability, at least within the organization.”
Beyond impacting student fees, the legislation includes a provision requiring universities to assess applicants based on publicly disclosed “merit” criteria. This means universities would be required to define and publicly share the specific qualifications or achievements they use to evaluate applicants. Then, the cabinet can make changes to the criteria as they see fit, potentially changing how admissions decisions are made.
In an interview with The Journal, Member of Provincial Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, Ted Hsu, expressed that the cabinet’s ability to influence those criteria could result in fundamental changes to how universities go about their acceptance process. While Hsu stopped short of accusing the Ford government of explicitly targeting DEI, he acknowledged that the concern is legitimate.
“The province, [Ontario], might want to ignore diversity, and the university might say no—that’s important for what it means to be a university and to expose people to different people who live in Ontario,” Hsu said.
Despite the uncertainty of Bill 33, Hsu encouraged students to stay engaged and recognize their role in shaping the future. “If you’re worried about what the world looks like today, remember: you’re at one of the places where the world 50 years from now is being determined,” he said.
Bill 33 will be read a third time when the legislators’ summer recess is over, with the house not expected to return until mid-Oct.
Tags
Bill 33, Ontario government, Parliament, student fee, student fees
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