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

TORONTO — 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. Related: Most OSAP growth came from career college students, documents show Ontario disqualifies students at 5 career colleges from receiving OSAP loans Ontario students brace for ‘vast amount’ of debt amid OSAP changes, tuition increases 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 num…