For Immediate Release
May 20, 2005

COLLEGES – GOING STRONG FOR 40 YEARS

Yesterday in the legislature, Laurie Scott paid tribute to Ontario’s Colleges and Universities as the 40th Anniversary of the Introduction of the legislation establishing them approached. Laurie Scott is the MPP for Haliburton-Victoria-Brock and the Progressive Conservative Party Critic for Training, Colleges and Universities.

“I ask members of all parties to join in celebrating 40 years in which colleges have helped add to the prosperity of our province,” said Laurie Scott. “Let us wish them more years of success.”
On May 21, 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.

Forty years after they began, Ontario 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 Ontario.

“A lot has changed since then, but the need for colleges has not,” said Laurie Scott. They were created to serve those who specifically were not university bound and who were seeking technical or vocational education.

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For More Information Contact:
Laurie Scott, MPP
Haliburton-Victoria-Brock
(416) 325-2008
(705) 324-6654