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In the nineteenth century, Canada began creating post-secondary institutions. Regional religious communities founded the majority of schools in this time period. Policy regarding post-secondary education was enacted over the next hundred years by both provincial and federal legislation. Provincial rule over post-secondary education was enacted by the 1867 British North America Act, now known as s.93 of the Canadian Constitution. This act divided legislative responsibilities between the provincial and federal government for post-secondary schools, outlining who had control over these institutions, as this was a major political issue within Canada at the time. Eventually, s.93 of the Canadian Constitution created a framework that gave provinces authority over post-secondary education, but still requiring federal regulations and laws to be met.
Since this act gave legislative jurisdiction to the provinces, each province and territory has its own unique policies fitted to their post-secondary institutions' needs. For example, within British Columbia, the provincial government tailored policies towards their own needs, such as the 2002 Degree Authorization Act which established a unified curriculum across the province. A few years earlier the BC NDP government passed policies to create more vocational post-secondary institutions, in order to meet the increasing need for technological jobs in the province. In Ontario, significant legislation and policies like the Strategic Mandate Agreements were passed in 2014 to create a unified framework of how the post-secondary education system within the province should be operating.
In Premier John Horgan's letter of mandate to Minister Anne Kang, the priorities for this ministry include:
Priorities that are specific for the Ministry of Education are listed below, directly quoted from Horgan's letter.