Pause on OSAP at private post-secondary institutions to stay in effect until new year

TORONTO – A pause on student financial assistance payments across all private post-secondary institutions in Ontario will stay in effect until at least the new year, the province’s colleges and universities minister announced Tuesday.

Nolan Quinn said in a late afternoon statement that the government intends to strengthen the approval process for career colleges and other private post-secondary institutions under the Ontario Student Assistance Program, but that work is not yet done.

“Proposed measures will include caps on OSAP-funded enrolment, the exclusion of predominantly online-only programs, and strengthened student identification and verification controls,” he wrote. 

“While necessary to protect the integrity of OSAP and to protect Ontario taxpayers from abuse, we understand the impact that this work is having on students and families across the province. This impact is not lost on us as we work to restore integrity to the system and provide students with greater certainty and stability as quickly as possible.”

The new validation system is expected to be implemented in the new year, he wrote, and OSAP payments will not resume until that time.

The government is also still working on securing third-party loans for students through banks, he said. 

Quinn tasked KPMG with an audit of the sector in August and said earlier this month that preliminary findings raised serious enough concerns that he has referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police.

Ministry investigators launched in-person inspections last week at eight career colleges, he said. That is on top of six institutions the government cut off from OSAP eligibility earlier this year.

Career Colleges Ontario, students and institutions including a divinity school and Canada’s National Ballet School have decried the government’s broad approach of pausing OSAP at all private post-secondary schools, but Quinn’s office has said there is evidence of systemic issues.

Angele Proulx, a student at Trillium College in St. Catharines, called Quinn’s statement outrageous.

“That does not seem to me that they are looking out for the students’ best interest,” said Proulx, in the college’s community development support worker program. 

“We are due to graduate Feb. 4, 2027, just after the new year. If they don’t do something about it from now until then, we will not graduate, but they will expect full payment. So that is not taking into consideration the students that are innocent in all of this.”

Trillium College announced late last week that it was suspending its academic operations as a result of the pause. It is offering interest-free payment arrangements, but many students have said they cannot make those payments without OSAP funding, the school said in a notice to students.

Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request showed large increases in OSAP usage at a relatively small number of career colleges from 2020-21 to 2024-25.

The seven career colleges that had the highest OSAP usage in 2024-25 received $385 million in provincial grants – the same amount that went to students at all of Ontario’s publicly funded colleges that year.

Court records show that ministry officials who inspected three career colleges found evidence they allege suggests third parties were completing the coursework — sometimes entire courses in one day — and a few students who couldn’t name their school or program. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2026.