The Doug Ford government is putting forward new legislative changes that is says will strengthen oversight and accountability when it comes to OSAP student loans at private postsecondary institutions after an ongoing audit raised concerns about possible fraud. “Preliminary findings identify serious systematic concerns about the integrity of OSAP within this sector,” Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn said in a news conference Thursday. “To name a few examples of what we’ve uncovered thus far, we have found allegations of third parties completing coursework for students, including entire courses being finished in a single day, final exams completed in as little as six minutes, thousands of OSAP applications submitted from the same IP addresses, and students who could not identify their school, their program, or the courses they were supposed to be taking.” The proposed changes would cap OSAP-funded enrolment growth at private institutions; make mainly-online programs ineligible for OSAP; require career colleges to maintain a physical campus; and “restrict relationships” between career colleges and third-party organizations, such as immigration and recruitment firms. The legislation would also give the province more power to recover OSAP payments from private institutions by making them liable for their students’ loans and establish new fines for violations under the Ontario Career Colleges Act. The hundreds of career colleges in the province would also face tougher requirements when it comes to verifying students are maintaining eligibility for OSAP by completing coursework and participating in class. The changes come after Quinn said in October that a third-party audit by KPMG raised “serious concerns” about OSAP payments to private career colleges. Quinn referred the findings to the Auditor General and Ontario Provincial Police, who are reviewing the information. Quinn also stopped OSAP payments to all private post-secondary institutions at the time, leaving many students in limbo. The province says the new legislation will be tabled on Nov. 16 as part of a broader legislative package. However, it’s not yet clear when OSAP payments will resume to affected students. Quinn said he is hoping that could happen in the new year, but the KPMG audit remains ongoing and there is no guaranteed timeline. He also reiterated he is working with banks to try and offer affected students low-interest loans in the meantime, but there is also no timeline for that. “Ultimately, we do understand the urgency, and that’s why we’re focusing on bringing this back by the new year because these good students need their dollars flowing, and we’re going to continue working with urgency,” Quinn said. “But at the same time, hearing that Career Colleges Ontario has suspended over 30 members, it really shows the complexity and the nuance to this. And we have to have the confidence before we flow another taxpayer dollar to any students.” Government should have acted sooner, opposition says But opposition groups at Queen’s Park slammed the bill as coming too late. “This bill is a classic case of closing the barn door after the horses are gone,” NDP colleges critic Peggy Sattler told reporters. “We need better oversight, but it should never have come to this.” She said it’s likely hundreds of millions of dollars have already been misspent, although no exact figure has been made public yet. “They punished students who rely on financial aid, and their failure to provide appropriate oversight left the door wide open for fraud,” Sattler said. Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser called the legislation a “cover your ass bill” that promises better oversight much too late. “The toothpaste is already out of the tube, right? And the problem is that thousands and thousands of honest, hardworking students and their families have been penalized, have been hurt. The bills can’t wait,” Fraser said. While both parties slammed the bill as coming too late, neither ruled out helping to fast-track it through the legislature. “All this legislation does is finally start to address the loopholes that this government chose to leave in there,” Fraser said. “But you know what’s not in this legislation? Things that will actually help students, that will save their lives, that will save their education this year. Nothing.”
