Ontario was warned of ‘suspicious’ OSAP activity at a few career colleges: documents

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.

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.