Ontario's colleges have been ordered back to the drawing table to come up with some new suggestions on salary caps for the president and other executives.

That, after some institutions like Algonquin proposed hikes of nearly 40%. The original proposal from Algonquin College was to cap the President's salary at just under half a million dollars, $494,000.

That number has now been revised, but not enough for Ontario's Advanced Education Minister.

For third year students Zoe Guzman-Poole and Brenna Thompson, money is tight and tuition is high. So, any talk of double-digit increases for the executives running Algonquin; it is tough to swallow.

“That's a lot of money,” says Zoe Guzman-Poole, who is in the child and youth worker program, “My initial reaction is that makes me feel very frustrated.”

It seems to frustrate Ontario's Advanced Education Minister, too. She has sent all 24 colleges back to the drawing board.

“You have got to justify, you have to explain to people why you're paying what you're paying,” Matthews said at a news conference in Toronto Thursday morning, “Quite frankly, having several colleges choose comparators that are ten times their size is not in the spirit of the legislation and in spirit of moving towards balanced budget.”

Ontario's colleges are first at bat to go through the government's new Executive Compensation Program for executives working in Ontario’s public sector. After having their wages frozen for 5 years, raises on the way but the Liberal government is asking the institutions to figure out what is a fair wage cap, based on comparator positions and organizations in other colleges or universities.

“This framework isn't about giving people raises,” says Scott Anderson, the executive director of communications, marketing and external relations at Algonquin College, “but about establishing a framework for future negotiations with executives. I can assure you this isn't about a fifty percent increase for any executive at Algonquin College.”

The first go-around with different comparators had Algonquin's president capping out at $494,000.

After some public feedback, that has now been revised to $445,000, which represents an increase over the current pay of about 39%.

“That’s a yearly salary, right?” asks one Algonquin student, “that's a pretty good salary.”

“I think it's unfair,” says another student.

So does the union representing faculty at Algonquin, who have seen their wages rise about 1 and a half percent for 3 years. They are flabbergasted by the proposal.

Pat Kennedy is the president of OPSEU local 415, “It's pay raises that I don't think anybody has seen those percentages applied, publicly to anybody,” he says, “and if we're looking at performance, it brings up an embarrassing point for the college in that they admitted quite significant losses on the Saudi campuses in that endeavor.”

Algonquin says it'll heed the Minister's advice.

“Now obviously we have more work to do,” says Anderson.

Third year student Brenna Thompson would add this piece of advice, too: to share the pain and the gain.

“I think the college is wonderful,” she says, “They deserve to be paid but I see the other side where students are struggling here to pay tuition, pay living costs.”

Universities and hospitals will be next to deal with this wage issue. Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews expects that they are taking note of what happened today and adjusting accordingly.