Ontario announced they would be appointing an administrator for Conestoga College in light of a provincial audit that found severe financial mismanagement at the school. The province announced the takeover on May 14, saying the audit found “evidence of serious financial and governance management.”
Linda Franklin has been named the new administrator, replacing the governing board. Some of the findings in the audit revealed the approval of a 55% salary increase to over $636,000 in 2024 for former president John Tibbits and a termination payment for Tibbits totalling 83 times his monthly salary. Tibbit’s total exit payout was $3.8m.
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Tibbits, 82, was Conestoga College president from 1987. He left under approaching storm clouds in January, 2026. |
The audit found 3 senior managers at the college took a $23,000 trip to Italy, and other similar offshore trips, where the college paid for business class airfare, luxury accommodations and premium transportation.
Conestoga College handed out pay raises without justification, awarded contracts to higher bidders without explanation, allowed an executive to recruit their daughter for a management position, and had such poor oversight of procurements and purchase orders that one for $11,000 was recorded at $126 billion — and no one noticed.
Conestoga College is infamous as a poster child for aggressive international student recruitment. Its extensive efforts brought in a flood of new money, which was quickly stolen by insiders. When the federal government sought to stem international student flows with a two-year cap on study permits, even the immigration minister singled the college out. In 2023 the college had 37,000 study permits approved and extended in 2023 — the most in Canada and a 31% increase from the previous year.
By 2023, Conestoga had the highest number of approved study permits in the country. At one point there were 3 international students for every Canadian. International students vastly outnumber Canadians at Conestoga College.
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The main campus alone is now home to more than 20,000 students, most from India. |
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