The association representing career colleges in Ontario began warning the government about possible “suspicious” student financial aid activity at a few campuses three years ago, documents show.
Career Colleges Ontario also asked the government to refer certain related concerns to police, though the details of those concerns and whether they apply to any particular institutions are not clear.
Two letters from Career Colleges Ontario to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities were filed as part of a court challenge to a government decision to block students at five career college campuses from accessing OSAP loans for this school year.
Correspondence from Career Colleges Ontario this February says it started raising concerns about “indicators consistent with suspicious activity” in OSAP applications in January 2023 and held four meetings with the ministry about it through that year.
The following year at another meeting between the organization and the ministry, Career Colleges Ontario “requested that related concerns be referred to law enforcement,” the letter says, though the subject of those concerns is redacted in the court record.
“We were advised that the ministry did make contact with police, and that police indicated they would need to conduct their own investigation in order to proceed,” executive director Kate Bartz wrote.
In the wake of Premier Doug Ford’s OSAP cuts, questions persist around how the program actually works. CBC’s Julia Knope breaks down what we know.
It is not clear what happened with police beyond that. Neither Career Colleges Ontario nor the ministry would provide further details to The Canadian Press.
It is also not clear why the letter was redacted when filed in court. As a result of the redaction, the particular concern or concerns that were referred to police, including whether they applied to any particular institution, are unknown.
Career Colleges Ontario, which processes OSAP applications for career colleges, told the ministry in a January 2025 letter that it had analyzed data from 2022 to 2024 and found that 10 schools had anomalous increases of an average 855 per cent over the two years.
One school went from 107 applications in 2022 to 2,992 in 2024, an increase of nearly 2,700 per cent, while most schools had flat numbers year over year, Bartz wrote.
“These data points, paired with reports from Financial Aid Officers, suggest a pattern inconsistent with typical enrolment trends,” she wrote.
“Some applicants have shared information that raises red flags regarding eligibility misrepresentation and misuse of OSAP funds. These were promptly reported to [the ministry’s OSAP inspection and compliance unit].”
Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request shows that the total of provincial grants sent to students at just seven career colleges in 2024-25 was about $385 million.
While tuition at career colleges tends to be higher than at publicly funded colleges, that total equals the amount of provincial grants given to students at all of Ontario’s publicly funded colleges that year — and more than all Ontario university students.
That is in addition to $137 million in federal grants to those seven schools in 2024-25.
About 18 months after Career Colleges Ontario sent the ministry its data, the government made five schools ineligible for OSAP, citing concerns around “compromised participation” in asynchronous online programs, in which students complete coursework on their own schedule.
Critics say it is a failure of oversight that the provincial government allowed a small number of career colleges to increase Ontario Student Assistance Program usage by hundreds of per cent in a short time.
They also accuse the government of using that growth to then declare the entire financial aid program “unsustainable” and reduce grant access for all post-secondary students.
Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn announced sweeping changes earlier this year to OSAP, including barring career college students from accessing grants and sharply reducing the amount of grants that students at universities and publicly funded colleges could receive.
Quinn’s office said oversight of the sector is robust, and that further action will be taken.
“We have zero tolerance for bad actors who threaten the integrity of our post-secondary system,” spokesperson Dayna Smockum wrote in a statement.
“When serious concerns are identified, we do not hesitate to cut off an institution from OSAP entirely, as we have already done in some cases. … This fall, we will introduce additional legislative measures to curb out-of-control growth, strengthen accountability and ensure every public dollar is used responsibly and in the best interests of students.”
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said all post-secondary students who need financial assistance are now paying the price for the government’s not acting quickly enough.
“Unfortunately this really does all come down to the government punishing all students for the failures of this government,” she said.
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said it looks as though the government has a double standard when it comes to oversight.
“They watch our universities and colleges so closely,” he said. “Now they’ve got this thing where you have 700 per cent growth [at one career college] … That’s incredible. If that happened at a college or university, the government would be all over it.”
Three Academy of Learning career college campuses, which operate as franchises, have launched a court challenge of Quinn’s decision to block their OSAP eligibility for the coming year.
They argue not only that the minister did not have the authority to make the decision, but also that the schools complied with inspections and corrective action plans every step of the way.
Career Colleges Ontario had said in February that it would pause processing OSAP applications for 14 campuses it had concerns with, but after lawyers for three Academy of Learning schools got involved, Career Colleges Ontario did not go through with the pause.
The Academy of Learning says in a statement that it has received no further communication from Career Colleges Ontario since then and is not aware that it has any outstanding concerns about Academy operations.
“We are committed to the highest ethical standards in the administration of OSAP,” the Academy wrote in the statement.
“As the court materials show, we have implemented dozens of new controls over the past year in response to the Ministry’s inspection reports, and the Ministry has acknowledged those steps.”
The school also says in its statement that it is worth noting that Career Colleges Ontario’s board is made up of owners and managers of other private career colleges, “many of them our direct competitors.”
The Academy of Learning also said in a previous statement that as Ontario’s population grew, their schools’ enrolment grew with it.
Court documents show the ministry’s concerns with the five schools it blocked from OSAP eligibility were around “compromised participation” in asynchronous learning programs.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the province temporarily extended OSAP eligibility to students in online and/or asynchronous programs, then later made it permanent.
