Ontario appoints Linda Franklin to run Conestoga College
Ontario appointed Linda Franklin to run conestoga college after an audit found serious financial and governance mismanagement. The province also relieved the board of governors of its duties and placed the college under outside oversight. Franklin, a former long-time head of Colleges Ontario, will work with Conestoga’s interim president and senior leaders.
Nolan Quinn
Colleges and universities minister Nolan Quinn said the province acted because its funding had to be used for student success. “Our government’s record-setting funding for colleges must be used to drive student success; anything less is completely unacceptable,” he said in a written release about the appointment.
Quinn also said Franklin’s role is to steer the college back toward tighter controls. “Under the administrator’s oversight, I expect that responsible fiscal decision-making will return to Conestoga College, setting the college on the right path to producing the graduates Ontario needs,” he said.
Conestoga College audit
The audit found an illegal severance payout, a luxury trip to Italy and alcohol-heavy meal expenses. It also identified a massive salary increase for former president John Tibbits and a termination payment that totalled 83 times the president’s monthly salary.
Among the figures cited were a $23,000 trip to Italy taken by three senior leaders, repeated ineligible hospitality expenses approved without proper board oversight, and one $1,300 dining expense for internal staff in which 50 per cent of the pre-tax total came from alcohol. The school also paid for business class airfare, luxury accommodations and premium transportation on trips.
John Tibbits severance
Tibbits received more than $3 million in severance when he left Conestoga at the start of this year. The law allows for a maximum of 24 months of severance in this case, about $1.2 million. His salary rose from $409,900 in 2022 to $494,716 in 2023, $636,107 in 2024 and $601,684 in 2025.
Conestoga had already come under fire for rapid growth in international students before the federal government clampdown, along with Tibbits’s growing salary and budget cuts that included letting go of hundreds of staffers. The province’s appointment gives Franklin control over the college’s financial and governance reset now, with the board stripped of its duties and the administration expected to answer to the outside supervisor.
