N環球 
Ontario pauses OSAP payments to private colleges, refers concerns to provincial police
Minister Nolan Quinn announced Tuesday that a KPMG audit found "serious concerns" about OSAP at private career colleges — links to immigration services firms, common ownership, weak enrolment verification — and has notified the auditor general and referred the matter to the OPP; legislation would bar mostly-online private colleges from OSAP.
Why it matters
This is the toughest crackdown on Ontario's student-aid system in years. Private career college students drew nearly C$1 billion in OSAP grants in 2024-25, and the audit found signs of systemic abuse — the government says criminal activity cannot be ruled out and taxpayer money was "egregiously" misused.
What happened
At a Tuesday (Oct 6) press conference, Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn announced the government has paused all OSAP payments to private postsecondary institutions and referred "serious concerns" found in an audit to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) for criminal investigation; the auditor general was notified last week.
The government hired KPMG in August 2026 for an independent audit, which flagged concerns including connections between some colleges and immigration services companies, common ownership structures, inadequate verification of student enrolment and course completion, and unusually high numbers of OSAP applications from the same geographic areas. Quinn said schools and students will not know their aid eligibility for this academic year until the audit is done.
The background data (The Canadian Press via freedom-of-information): about 14,800 students at three Academy of Learning franchise locations received more than C$219 million in OSAP grants in 2024-25, while all publicly funded colleges in the province received about C$385 million; just seven career colleges accounted for C$385 million. Court records show inspectors found third parties completing coursework (an entire course done in one day, a final exam finished in six minutes) and students who could not name their school or program.
The government had already acted against some schools: in May it issued non-renewal notices to six private career college campuses and suspended their OSAP eligibility. Quinn also announced planned legislation that would make predominantly online programs at private career colleges ineligible for OSAP, with stricter requirements for private institutions to regain eligibility.
Reactions
NDP critic Peggy Sattler said the pause unfairly punishes innocent students; the Ontario Liberals asked the auditor general for a dedicated audit, calling it "Doug Ford's next billion-dollar scandal"; Career Colleges Ontario said the approval delays are causing major disruption and urged policy targeting wrongdoers rather than the whole sector.
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