OSAP pause hits paramedic students bound to work in underserved areas

Paramedic students at a career college in northern Ontario who were approved to receive funding through a signature government program aiming to boost health-care staffing have been swept up in the provincewide pause on student aid.

More than 40 affected students have already dropped out, their school says.

Members of Premier Doug Ford’s government have often boasted about their Learn and Stay Grant, which covers the cost of tuition for nursing, paramedic and medical lab technology students who agree to work in underserved areas.

But it is funded through the Ontario Student Assistance Program, which Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn has paused for all career colleges and other private post-secondary institutions.

Quinn has tasked KPMG with auditing OSAP usage in career colleges and said that preliminary findings were of such concern that he enacted the OSAP pause sector-wide to protect the integrity of the system until the audit is completed.

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Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, the amount of provincial OSAP grants to career colleges nearly doubled, to about $1 billion in the latter year, a previous freedom-of-information request by The Canadian Press showed.

A second FOI shows skyrocketing usage at a relatively small number of schools, and the ministry says it now has broad concerns about the integrity of the system.

Only one career college is eligible for the Learn and Stay Grant – CTS Canadian Career College, which offers a paramedic diploma program in North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.

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Some of the career colleges under suspicion saw increases in OSAP usage of more than 1,000 per cent over three years. CTS saw a 14 per cent increase over that time, according to the data obtained through FOI.

Aaron Madgett is at the CTS campus in Sault Ste. Marie, trying to become a paramedic after getting laid off from Algoma Steel. He said his stomach dropped when he heard the funding was paused, and wondered if he would have to quit school.

“It kind of ripped away all the goals and aspirations that I had for me and my family, and I was gutted at the time,” he said.

Madgett said the school is helping, such as giving students chapters of textbooks they need, but he is now behind on property tax and electricity payments and has been making use of food bank services. Still, he said he is trying to stay positive.

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“I have a positive outlook that things will work out,” he said. “I believe the government — there’s got to be something that they can do. There’s always something. That’s my belief.”

Quinn’s office said in a statement that “work is underway to reassess” Learn and Stay Grant eligibility at CTS Canadian Career College.

“As the OLSG has a separate, rigorous accountability process in place, including in-person instruction and return-of-service commitments, work is underway to reassess OLSG eligibility at this institution,” Bianca Giacoboni wrote.

Quinn touted Monday in the legislature that the Learn and Stay Grant is “supporting students pursuing in-demand health-care careers in communities that need them the most.”

He was speaking to the broader OSAP pause in responding to an NDP motion calling on the government to provide a plan within 14 days for relief for affected students.

Quinn said his message to “impacted, legitimate students” is that he is working efficiently to bring forward a stronger OSAP for all.

“You deserve an education that is free from fraudulent, abusive, and malicious actors, so that you can get the high-quality, legitimate skills you need to launch successful, fulfilling careers,” he said.

CTS said that 41 students who were supposed to be receiving the Learn and Stay Grant have already dropped out, while 115 grant-funded students are left.

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Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the government is making students pay for a problem they did not cause.

“The government’s failing,” he said. “It is cutting its nose off to spite its face.”

Fyonna Vanderwerf is in the CTS paramedic program in North Bay. The Learn and Stay Grant was supposed to pay her tuition and other school costs, and she intended to rely on an OSAP loan for living expenses while she studied.

“Mortgage, food, gas, money — there’s nothing there, and there won’t be anything there for the foreseeable future,” she said.

“I really want everything investigated. I really do. But I also want accountability for the employment commitment that we signed for.”

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the government should be transparent about the funding streams affected by the OSAP pause and the impacts they are having.

“These communities desperately need those students,” she said. “We need those paramedics, and we need those workers out there.”