2025 will be remembered as a notable year for student advocacy in Canada, not least because of the fight against Bill 33 in Ontario. While that particular campaign was lost (more on that later), there have been positive developments around the country achieved by student unions. These achievements are worth discussing and celebrating.
Earlier in 2025, the Walking The Tightrope report by the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations identified numerous challenges faced by students, notably in the areas of personal finance and mental health. What did student unions do in addressing those issues in 2025? Let’s find out.
Housing
With 1.2 million students in Canada struggling to find affordable housing every year, the student housing crisis is at the forefront of advocacy of student unions across the country. In 2025, several student unions took a proactive approach to researching the extent of the crisis in their communities. The University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU) created a Student Exploratory Housing Caucus, which released the Student Housing Report. The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) partnered with House Canada to deliver a report on the student housing crisis in Mississauga. And the the University of Prince Edward Island Student Union (UPEISU) partnered with the Government of PEI, Holland College, College de l’Isle, UPEI and Turner-Drake & Partners Ltd to create a report titled “Assessment of Student Housing Need at Publicly Funded Post-Secondary Educational Institutions on Prince Edward Island”.
These three reports are notable for being student-led, as typically such reports are done by market research firms. This is not a bad thing, but the involvement of student unions in research on housing crises in their communities helps local policymakers to understand the impact on their constituents. Hopefully there will be more such energy from student unions going into 2026, and we will see more findings on housing challenges experienced by students, especially in the areas with low vacancy rates (looking at you, Saint John and St. John’s).
Transit
In Ottawa, the University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU) successfully campaigned against the 5% increase to the cost of U-Pass that was set to go into effect on January 1, 2025. The UOSU’s petition gathered 3,742 signatures, and the hike was postponed until September 2025, when it was ultimately implemented. And later that year, OC-Transpo, Ottawa’s transport authority, scrapped the youth pass (for ages 11-19). The change affected a minority of the student population, so a successful advocacy campaign by UOSU to help out Ottawa’s teens is unlikely. Nonetheless, UOSU gets “A” for the efforts, especially as they are preparing to deliver the results of their Student Transit Survey to the City of Ottawa.
More jovial news arrived from Kitchener, where Conestoga College students voted in favour of the U-Pass in a 2024 referendum. Thanks to the efforts of Conestoga Students Inc, the pass came into effect on September 1, 2025.
As Canada is looking to expand its public transit in the coming years, accessing the transportation remains a challenge for students in some communities. We will be observing how student unions take action for students on this file.
(While not successful, a somewhat comical campaign for the extension of SkyTrain to University of British Columbia (UBC) was done by UBC Alma Mater Society, take a look).
Mental Health
In its 2025 pre-budget submission, the Students’ Association of Mount Royal University, the Students’ Union at University of Calgary (SU) and its graduate counterpart GSA recommended to (1) make a permanent commitment to the Post-Secondary Student Mental Health Grant, and (2) allocate funding for mental health according to the number of students at a particular institution. When Budget 2025 was launched, the folks at SU breathed a sigh of relief, as it included a $8.7 million investment in mental health support on post-secondary campuses. But what about the second recommendation? The latest Advanced Education report by the Government of Alberta still says that the grant is allocated “based on factors such as campus location and institutional size”. So, no progress on that aspect just yet, but a win is a win. The three wise student unions should be proud of their ability to work together for the benefit of all Albertan students.
The last example in this article is not a student-led initiative, but it is worth highlighting as an example of cooperation between researchers and student unions. On December 2, 2025 the Observatoire sur la santé mentale étudiante en enseignement supérieur (Observatory on Student Mental Health in Higher Education) in Quebec released its first report. It was written based on the results of the survey of student mental health that gathered responses from more than 32,000 students in Quebec. The researchers collaborated with the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec and the Union étudiante du Québec who assisted with dissemination of the survey, and organized activities promoting student mental health during the data collection period.
This case shows how important it is for non-student organizations to cooperate with student unions when they need student representation, as opposed to filling student-designated spots with appointees. Student unions have the resources and capacity to reach a wider student population. They are able to provide the necessary student representation for a project that is not tokenistic and represents the opinion of students. Cooperate with student unions.
Going forward
The affordability crisis, mental health challenges, and fears about employment security are not going away, and student unions have much work ahead in these areas. The track record shows that focused, strategic advocacy can deliver real results that improve students’ lives. Year over year, student unions demonstrate their ability to achieve meaningful change when they organize and cooperate together around concrete policy goals. Recent successes in 2024-2025 illustrate this capacity well. So, there is much to be hopeful about when it comes to advocacy done by student unions.
Here’s to a successful 2026 for them.
A word on Bill 33
As mentioned earlier, the passage of Bill 33 by Ontarian lawmakers is disappointing, but somewhat predictable, considering earlier efforts of the provincial government to curtail funding to student unions through the Student Choice Initiative. We at Student Affairs Group will be closely monitoring the impacts of the new legislation on the Ontarian student unions. More updates coming soon once the law’s implementation becomes clearer.
The featured image is designed by Freepik.
