Students in Ottawa who rely on OSAP are watching a new fight over how Ontario spends its student aid money. According to an Instagram post from @shottawa.tv, the province's grant spending is facing fresh scrutiny after figures obtained through a freedom-of-information request.
What the numbers show
The post says Ontario spent $465 million more on OSAP grants in 2024-25 than in 2023-24. It reports that 95 per cent of that increase went to students at private career colleges.
Those students received nearly $1 billion in OSAP grants in 2024-25, the post says. Just seven career colleges accounted for $385 million of that total.
These figures come from the post's summary of the freedom-of-information data. ottown has not independently reviewed the underlying records.
The audit request
According to the post, Tyler Watt, the Ontario Liberals' colleges and universities critic, is asking Auditor General Shelley Spence for a value-for-money audit. He wants it to look at the spending increases and whether the province provided adequate oversight.
The post also says Career Colleges Ontario reportedly warned the government as early as January 2023 about indicators consistent with suspicious activity involving OSAP applications.
The auditor general has not announced an investigation. Her office says its 2026 audits are already underway, and Watt's request will be considered when it plans future audits, the post says.
Changes to OSAP
The post says the Ford government has since made major changes to OSAP. Grant availability has been reduced for students at publicly funded universities and colleges. Career-college students are now eligible for loans rather than grants.
What it means in Ottawa
Ottawa is home to publicly funded institutions including Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, Algonquin College and La Cité. Students at those schools fall under the group the post says has seen reduced grant availability. Anyone planning how to pay for a term here may want to check their own OSAP award details through the province's student aid portal.
Whether an audit goes ahead is still undecided. For now, the question of how Ontario's student aid dollars were distributed, and who oversaw it, remains open.
Source: Instagram post by @shottawa.tv, posted October 6, 2026.
