The Ontario community college system was founded by an act of provincial parliament in 1965. Then Minister of Education Bill Davis introduced Bill 153, an amendment to the Department of Education Act, to create Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs).
By 1967 there were 20 community colleges, including Mohawk College in Hamilton.
Bill 153 based the mandate of community colleges on four principles:
- They must embrace total education, vocational and avocational, regardless of formal entrance qualifications, with provision for complete vertical and horizontal mobility.
- They must develop curricula that meet the combined cultural aspirations and occupational needs of the student.
- They must operate in the closest possible cooperation with business and industry, and with social and other public agencies, including education, to ensure that curricula are at all times abreast, if not in advance of the changing requirements of a technological society.
- They must be dedicated to progress, through constant research, not only in curricula but in pedagogical technique and in administration.