June 8, 2026

The Government of Canada announced last week that it would be investing approximately $10B in Québec’s infrastructure over the next 10 years. Nearly $2.7B has been allocated for the Build Communities Strong Fund’s housing and higher education envelope, which will contribute to housing, postsecondary infrastructure, and drinking water systems. These funds will be used to support the postsecondary sector by creating student residences to increase capacity of regional campuses and renovating and modernizing the province’s cégeps and universities. “By working closely with Québec, we’re strengthening communities, supporting critical infrastructure growth and sustainability, and securing a prosperous future for Québecers,” explained Federal Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson.

In a new University Affairs article, writer Tim Lougheed lays out the case for digital sovereignty when it comes to learning software. Speaking to multiple technology experts, Lougheed writes that last month’s Canvas software cyberattack highlighted the amount of control and digital autonomy Canada cedes to closed platforms outside of the country. Lougheed points to the opportunity to use open-source alternatives. Despite a higher learning curve associated with these open systems, The Dais Director of Partnerships Jake Hirsch-Allen explained that open systems can “make us think differently” and allow institutions to retain greater control of their data.

The Government of Ontario is providing $8M through the Skills Development Fund Training Stream to support workforce development in Northern Ontario. The funding will support more than 7,300 workers across the region through three training projects and a capital investment into a new training centre in Sudbury. The training centre will be run by Science North and will train 7,000 individuals for sectors such as mining and construction. “This is about creating lasting opportunities in the skilled trades by meeting the workforce where it is at and investing in the people and communities across the North,” said ON Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation Greg Rickford.

Selkirk College has announced the development of a new Medical Laboratory Assistant program, which will be delivered at its campus in Trail. The purpose of the one-year program is to address a critical shortage of medical laboratory assistants in the region and across the province. The curriculum will be based on Camosun College’s accredited curriculum, which will save Selkirk time and resources and ensure the program can launch in time for 2027–28. “Selkirk College’s new Medical Laboratory Assistant training will help reduce wait times for testing, speed up diagnoses and ensure patients across the Kootenay and Boundary regions and throughout BC can count on timely, high-quality care close to home,” said BC Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Jessie Sunner.

University of Winnipeg Professor Matthew Flisfeder has filed a statement of claim against Meta and X, alleging that he was impersonated in a “campaign of harassment and defamation.” The posters reportedly pretended to be Flisfeder and made vulgar comments online, including comments about acting inappropriately with students. “I have dedicated my career to academic teaching and scholarship,” said Flisfeder. “My professional reputation is of fundamental importance to my livelihood and standing within the academic community.” The Winnipeg Free Press reports that Flisfeder’s lawyers have also filed a notice of motion seeking a court order for the companies to disclose information such as names, emails, and IP addresses associated with the accounts.

McMaster University and the Indian Institute of Technology Indore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines how they will grow their partnership. The agreement builds on an existing engineering-focused collaboration between the two institutions, expanding it into a broader institutional partnership that includes joint research, faculty and student mobility, and graduate-level collaboration. The institutions also discussed potential models for co-supervised and dual graduate programs, and collaborations in interdisciplinary areas of research.

In a recent article for University World News, Dr Michael Edmondson (New Jersey Institute of Technology) discusses the challenges that graduates face when it comes to finding jobs suited to their skills and training. Edmondson argues that this is an issue around the world, with many postsecondary systems sporting uneven graduate outcomes. He argues that the issue stems from a misalignment between the static knowledge offered by higher education and the more universal skills that the contemporary workplace is looking for. He concludes by asserting that the value of higher ed “may ultimately lie more in equipping graduates with the capacity to navigate the future than in predicting it.”

The Canadian Press and The Trillium recently reported that the Government of Ontario’s increased expenditure through the Ontario Student Assistance Program grants primarily went to private career college students. Through freedom-of-information requests, the publications noted a stark increase in the amount of OSAP grants given out to students at career colleges from 2023–24 to 2024–25. Several advocates and critics voiced their concerns about the increases and the justification behind ON’s changes to the student aid program earlier this year. “Students deserve to know what evidence is informing OSAP policy changes, how impacts are being tracked, and whether support is being delivered fairly across the system,” said the College Student Alliance. ON has since announced that career college students will no longer be eligible for OSAP grants.

The Rick Hansen Foundation, RBC, and RBC Foundation have announced the 40 recipients of the RBC Barrier Buster Grants program. Algonquin College, Laurentian University, Mount Allison University, and the University of King’s College are among those receiving funding. The grants are designed to support improvements to physical accessibility of spaces for schools, municipalities, and community groups. Uses for the funding include residence travel path improvements (Algonquin), accessible listening and descriptive audio systems (Laurentian), accessible building entryways (MtA), and kitchen accessibility renovations (U of King’s College).

The Saskatoon Police Service has announced that they have arrested and charged a man following allegations of voyeurism at the University of Saskatchewan’s convocation ceremony. The man was detained by USask Protective Services and security following allegations that he had been taking inappropriate pictures of women without their consent. The investigation is continuing, and USask announced that supports are available to students needing them.