Following the Money: OSAP Audit Reveals 'Serious Concerns' at Private Career Colleges
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Preliminary findings trigger an OPP referral and a sector-wide funding freeze as data shows seven private colleges received as much in grants as all public colleges combined.
The scale of taxpayer funding flowing into Ontario's private career college sector has triggered a criminal referral and a total freeze on student financial assistance.
According to reporting from CBC Toronto and CityNews Toronto, Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn announced Tuesday that the government has referred concerns regarding Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) payments to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). This move follows preliminary audit findings that identified "serious concerns" regarding the integrity of the OSAP system within the private post-secondary sector.
**The Receipts: Funding Disparities** Data reported by The Canadian Press reveals a stark concentration of provincial funds. In the 2024-25 period, just seven private career colleges received approximately $385 million in provincial grants. This total is equivalent to the combined amount of provincial grants sent to every single one of Ontario's publicly funded colleges.
**The Red Flags** Minister Quinn stated that the ministry began targeted inspections last year, followed by an audit launched in August by KPMG. The preliminary findings highlighted several specific irregularities:
* **Institutional Ties:** Issues involving common ownership and the co-location of private career colleges with immigration recruitment or immigration services firms. * **Verification Failures:** Inadequate validation of students and a lack of verification regarding course enrollment and outcomes. * **Geographic Anomalies:** Unusually high concentrations of OSAP applications originating from the same geographic locations.
**The Timeline of Warnings** While the government has now notified the auditor general and the OPP, court records indicate that the province was warned about this activity long before the current audit. Career Colleges Ontario—the association representing the sector and the entity responsible for processing student OSAP applications—has been alerting the province to "suspicious" OSAP activity since January 2023.
**Collateral Damage** The government has paused all OSAP payments for students at career colleges as a result of the audit. Because this announcement arrived six weeks into the academic year, it has created significant instability for students and institutions with no history of misconduct.
Michele Lupa, executive director of Mothercraft, told CBC Toronto and CityNews Toronto that her institution maintains a "stellar" compliance record but is still waiting to hear if it remains eligible for OSAP. Lupa noted that Mothercraft graduates roughly 125 early childhood educators annually, a critical role for the national affordable child-care program. Similarly, Daliah Gardoque, a first-semester student at the Toronto College of Dental Hygiene and Auxiliaries, has launched an online petition urging the ministry to resolve the uncertainty, noting that students may be forced to drop out if funding is not restored.