TORONTO — Queen’s Park returns this week with the Ontario Student Assistance Program under scrutiny after the government froze payments to private career colleges and private post-secondary institutions and shifted more public-institution aid from grants to loans.Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn paused all OSAP payments linked to private institutions on Oct. 6. The pause followed preliminary findings from a KPMG audit launched in August. Those findings included common ownership among schools, co-location with immigration services firms, inadequate student validation and verification of enrolment and outcomes, and unusually high concentrations of applications from the same geographic areas.The ministry referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police. It had already suspended OSAP eligibility for six campuses earlier in 2026 after notices of non-renewal. Quinn said last week the pause will stay in place until at least the new year, when a new approval process is expected. Proposed changes include caps on OSAP-funded enrolment, the exclusion of predominantly online-only programs, and stronger student identification controls. The government has said it is also working on low-interest third-party loans through banks for affected students..The freeze applies across the private sector, including institutions that have not been named in the audit concerns. Students and operators, including those at Canada’s National Ballet School and some divinity schools, have said the broad approach leaves people who followed the rules unable to access approved funding mid-program. Career Colleges Ontario has called for a more targeted response. Some students have said they face delayed graduations or difficulty covering living costs.At the same time, the province has reduced the grant share of OSAP for students at universities and publicly funded colleges. Previously, grants could make up as much as 85% of provincial aid. The new maximum is 25%, with the remainder issued as loans. The government has also lifted a long-standing tuition freeze, allowing institutions to raise fees by up to 2% a year. Officials have described the changes as a response to rising OSAP usage and a need to protect taxpayer dollars. Provincial grants to career colleges nearly doubled in one recent year and approached $1 billion, with the bulk of a reported $465 million increase going to private career college students.Opposition members have said the ministry received warnings about usage patterns years earlier and should have acted sooner. The ministry has said it regularly reviews complaints, expanded reviews after federal warnings in 2025, and engaged the government’s Forensic Investigation Team before bringing in KPMG.With the legislature back after a 21-week break, Quinn is expected to face questions on both the private-college pause and the broader shift toward repayable loans. The government has said the measures are needed to restore integrity to the system. Students at private institutions remain without the payments they had been assessed to receive until the new process is in place.
