Ontario Was Warned for Years About Career Colleges' OSAP Boom

The province had warnings for years. In a letter filed in court, Career Colleges Ontario (CCO), the association that processes OSAP applications for private career colleges, says it began raising concerns about "indicators consistent with suspicious activity" in OSAP applications with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities in January 2023 and met the ministry four times that year. In 2024, CCO "requested that related concerns be referred to law enforcement." Executive director Kate Bartz wrote that the ministry did contact police, who said they would need to run their own investigation. The subject of those concerns is redacted in the court record, CBC News and The Canadian Press reported.

In a January 2025 letter, CCO told the ministry that 10 schools showed anomalous increases in OSAP applications averaging 855 per cent over two years. One school went from 107 applications in 2022 to 2,992 in 2024, while most schools were flat (CBC). Freedom-of-information data obtained by The Canadian Press shows Academy of Learning's Bay Street location went from 996 students claiming OSAP in 2021-22 to 7,435 in 2024-25, with more than $108 million in Ontario grants to those students in the latter year; its Brampton East location went from 289 to 4,260 (CTV News/CP). "Other provinces know this is a problem. There's no excuse for Ontario not understanding this," said Alex Usher of Higher Education Strategy Associates.

The money was large. Students at just seven career colleges received about $385 million in provincial grants in 2024-25, equal to the total for all of Ontario's publicly funded colleges and more than all Ontario university students received, plus $137 million in federal grants (CBC). About 14,800 students at three Academy of Learning franchise locations received more than $219 million in OSAP grants that year (CTV News/CP). Across all career colleges, students received nearly $1 billion in OSAP grants in 2024-25, and 95 per cent of the year's $465 million increase in grant spending went to private career college students (CBC).

The government acted more than a year after CCO's January 2025 letter. On May 1, 2026, Minister Nolan Quinn told five career colleges that they would not be OSAP-eligible as of Aug. 1 (CTV News/CP): four Academy of Learning franchise locations and Citi College of Canadian Careers (CTV News/CP). By then the government had already cited OSAP's "unsustainable" cost to sharply cut grants for university and public college students and to make career college students eligible only for loans (CBC). See the OSAP cuts.

Quinn's office says oversight of the sector is robust. "We have zero tolerance for bad actors who threaten the integrity of our post-secondary system," spokesperson Dayna Smockum said, adding that the government would introduce legislation "this fall" to curb growth and strengthen accountability (CBC).

Ministry inspection reports filed in court allege serious problems at three Academy of Learning locations (Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Brampton East, and its North York branch campus). A September 2025 report on the Bay Street location said the school was "unable to demonstrate that OSAP-funded students are actively participating in the programs they are enrolled in." Inspectors alleged that 39 of 42 Bay Street student files had IP addresses also used to access other students' accounts, all referred by the same recruiter; that one North York student's credentials were used from at least 211 IP addresses; that a Brampton student finished all quizzes and a final exam in one day, the exam taking six minutes; and that some students interviewed could not name their school or program. The federal government also raised concerns about the Bay and Brampton locations in September 2025 (CTV News/CP).

These are allegations. None have been proven in court, and the Academy of Learning denies most of them. The schools say Bell, Rogers and Cogeco customers get dynamic IP addresses, so a shared address "does not, by itself, establish misconduct"; that time spent on the online platform is not a complete measure of learning; that they filed corrective action plans and added controls such as two-factor authentication; and that many concerns relate to a historical period since reviewed (CTV News/CP). The Academy has said its enrolment grew with Ontario's population of newcomers and people retraining (CTV News/CP), and has noted that CCO's board is made up of owners and managers of other career colleges, "many of them our direct competitors" (CBC). CCO had said in February 2026 it would pause processing OSAP applications for 14 campuses, but did not go through with it after lawyers for three Academy of Learning schools got involved (CBC).

Critics say every student paid for the oversight gap. NDP Leader Marit Stiles called it "the government punishing all students for the failures of this government," and interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the government appears to have a double standard on oversight, pointing to 700 per cent growth at one career college (CBC). On Oct. 5, 2026, Liberal colleges and universities critic Tyler Watt asked Auditor General Shelley Spence for a value-for-money audit of OSAP spending at career colleges and of whether the government properly oversaw it. "This has all the makings of Doug Ford's next billion-dollar scandal," he said, adding that the government "took a hatchet to a problem that required a scalpel" (CBC, CHCH/CP). The Auditor General's office said all 2026 audits are already underway but it would take the request into account for future audit planning (CBC, CHCH). No audit has been ordered.

For another case involving the ministry's oversight of private career colleges, see truck driver training fraud. In this case, CCO told the province in February 2026 that after federal scrutiny, OSAP application activity "shifted to other institutions rather than declining" (CTV News/CP).