TORONTO — Students at just seven private career colleges collected $385 million in provincial OSAP grants last year — matching the total given to every student at Ontario’s publicly funded colleges, and more than all university students received.The figures, obtained by the Canadian Press through a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request, show a handful of the province’s roughly 170 career colleges drove almost all recent growth in student aid. Career Colleges Ontario, the sector’s own lobby group, has raised the alarm.“We continue to work constructively with ministry officials … especially where there may have been atypically large increases in the number of OSAP applications submitted that cannot be justified to the government’s satisfaction,” spokesperson Taylor Buck said.Academy of Learning’s Bay Street campus in Toronto went from 996 OSAP recipients in 2021-22 to 7,435 in 2024-25. Those students received more than $108 million in provincial grants in a single year. The Brampton East campus grew more than 1,300%, from 289 recipients to 4,260. Both campuses are in court challenging the government’s later decision to cut them off from OSAP. Court filings show at least one campus received a fail on a September 2025 OSAP inspection..Between 2023-24 and 2024-25 the province spent $465 million more on OSAP grants. Ninety-five % of that increase went to private career college students. Their grants jumped from $554 million to $994 million — more than public colleges and universities combined. University grants fell from $370 million to $354 million.Private career college students now take about 40% of all OSAP grants, up from under 8% a decade ago. The average grant exceeded $15,000, compared with $5,500 to $7,000 at public institutions.Ontario’s auditor general warned in 2021 that the ministry had not established adequate systems to confirm private colleges were delivering quality, up-to-date education, and that about 30% of campuses had not been inspected on the ministry’s own three-year schedule. A May 2026 audit of truck-driving programs found some private colleges issuing certificates without the required training hours.Internal briefing notes obtained by The Trillium show civil servants told the government in October 2025 that career-college OSAP applications had more than doubled and accounted for more than a third of the overall jump — months before Queen’s Park cut grants for public-college and university students as well..The Ford government later barred career-college students from provincial grants, following a similar federal cutoff, and in July cut off loans at five campuses. Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn’s office said further legislation is coming this fall “to curb out-of-control growth” and “ensure every public dollar is used responsibly.”The remaining question is why oversight lagged so far behind enrolment — and why taxpayers funded the surge in the first place.
