TORONTO — Ontario ended the 2023-24 fiscal year with a nearly balanced budget, in part due to higher-than-expected revenue from international student tuition at colleges.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy and Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney released public accounts Thursday, a final tally of the spending and revenues for the last fiscal year. It showed Ontario ended the 2023-24 year just $600 million in the red, down from the $1.3-billion deficit for that year projected in the 2023 budget.
Ontario universities nearly doubled international student enrolment between 2014-15 and 2021-22, and colleges more than tripled international enrolment, according to a report last year from University of Ottawa-based think tank the Smart Prosperity Institute. The federal government announced in January that it was slashing the number of international-student permits, which Immigration Minister Marc Miller said was intended to curb bad actors from taking advantage of high tuition fees while providing a poor education.
Bethlenfalvy said he expects to have more information by the time he releases his fall economic update by mid-November. Colleges Ontario said in a statement that the federal government's announcement this week will hurt colleges and deepen a labour crisis.
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