People gather at Kitchener City Hall to protest OSAP changes

A gathering was held in Kitchener as people worried for the future of OSAP. CTV's Hannah Schmidt reports.

A group of people gathered at Kitchener City Hall on Sunday to protest recent changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

The rally happened from noon to 2 p.m. at Carl Zehr Square.

The protest was held in opposition to changes announced by the provincial government last month that will reduce grant funding through OSAP while increasing reliance on student loans.

“The cuts to grants really impact the students from lower incomes,” organizer Teresa Cornwell said. “Post-secondary education needs to be available to all.”

“Short term, there are going to be students here who are going to drop out and make other choices. And in the long term, we’re going to see students graduating with $80,000 to $100,000 a year debts. And that’s not that’s not what we want,” Cornwell said.

The change will mean some graduates will begin their careers already saddled with hefty debt loads.

“Those people might not be able to pay off the additional loans,” Quinten Dunning, a Grade 11 student said. “They need the grants to actually make it through.”

For others, post-secondary education is now feeling out of reach.

“A lot of people I know are affected by these setbacks,” Alex McCarthy, a senior high school student said. “To see what happened, their future being taken away right before their eyes, after I’ve seen them work as hard as they have for all these years - it’s sad.”

However, the province has said the changes are being made to rebalance a financially unsustainable program.

“The changes we have made to OSAP are to ensure the sustainability, the funds, will be available to students that need them,” Minister of Colleges, Universities and Research Excellence Nolan Quinn said. “With the changes we are making, they are just going to make a little bit bigger investment into their future earnings.”

Sunday’s gathering comes days after more than a thousand students marched outside the University of Waterloo, where they also expressed concerns over the changes.

Last month, the provincial government announced it would be giving colleges and universities a major funding boost, lift a seven-year tuition freeze and decrease grant funding through OSAP.

Previously, approximately 85 per cent of OSAP funding was achieved through grants, but starting in the fall, students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent as grant money.