Colleges Anniversary – Statement Draft – 19-May-05

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the legislature to join in the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Ontario’s Colleges.

This year marks 40 years since Ontario’s colleges were established in legislation.

A lot has changed since then, but the need for colleges has not.

They were created to serve those students who specifically were not university bound, and who were seeking technical or vocational education.

In 1965, then Minister of Education William G. Davis who served in the Progressive Conservative government of John Robarts introduced the legislation establishing the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology.

The bill received all party support, and I think that support for the important work of colleges continues to this day.

Forty years after they began, Ontario’s colleges have evolved into 21 Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology and three College Institutes of Technology and Advanced Learning.

These institutions annually serve 150,000 full-time students, close to a million part-time students and employ approximately 30,000 people in 200 communities across the province.

William Davis when asked about the success of colleges in 2003 commented:

“The success rate of the graduates of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology in obtaining employment, which we had all hoped would be the case, has gone beyond what we might reasonably have anticipated.”

I ask members of all parties to join in celebrating 40 years in which colleges have helped add to the prosperity of our province.

Let us all wish them equal success over the next 40 years.