 He attended St. Stanislaw’s Elementary School and Bishop Macdonell High School, where he was inspired by one of his English teachers to join the priesthood.Earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from St. Jerome College, Waterloo in 1969, Collins was ordained to the diaconate on 14 May 1972.In 1973, he received a Master of Arts in English from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Theology from St. Peter's Seminary, London.