Thunder Bay – National News – If you have a neighbor, a cousin, or a coworker’s kid enrolled at Trillium College, there’s a decent chance that classes have stopped for them this week, at least for now. Trillium College, which runs campuses in St. Catharines, Kingston, Oshawa, Sudbury and Cobourg, suspended both its classroom and online instruction as of Friday. The college notified students directly, and that notice was obtained and confirmed by The Canadian Press.
This isn’t something Trillium decided on its own out of nowhere.
It comes after a province-wide move by Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn, who announced earlier this month that Ontario Student Assistance Program payments to career colleges and other private post-secondary schools are being paused while an audit takes place.
For a school like Trillium, where many students depend on that funding to cover tuition, that pause has real consequences, and fast.
In its notice, Trillium said it is offering interest-free payment arrangements to help students bridge the gap. But plenty of students have said that’s not realistic. Without OSAP money coming in, there simply isn’t anything to arrange payments with. Trillium acknowledged as much, writing that many students have asked for more time to figure out their finances, weigh other payment options and decide whether continuing their education right now is even possible.
The college said pushing forward with normal classes without a solid funding plan in place would put students’ ability to finish their programs at greater risk. The pause, as Trillium framed it, buys time for students to sort out their options and gives the college room to rework schedules, staffing, payment plans and a path back to the classroom.
Minister Quinn’s office has said it’s looking at alternatives while the OSAP pause continues, but hasn’t given a timeline for when payments might resume. A statement from Bianca Giacoboni in Quinn’s office said the government recognizes the impact the pause is having on students and is working on low-interest, third-party loans through financial institutions to help students get through the transition.
The pause isn’t limited to career colleges like Trillium. It covers all private post-secondary institutions in Ontario, including private universities, chiropractic and naturopathic medicine colleges, and performing arts schools, among them Canada’s National Ballet School. Across the sector, schools and students alike have pushed back hard against the broad scope of the move, arguing that any crackdown should target specific bad actors rather than freeze funding for everyone.
Quinn’s office has defended the decision, with Giacoboni saying evidence of systemic issues had compromised the integrity of the OSAP system, leaving the government little choice but to pause payments across the board to protect public money and hold bad actors accountable. Career Colleges Ontario has reportedly flagged concerns for some time about suspicious OSAP usage patterns at a handful of schools, including sharp jumps in enrollment numbers. Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request shows OSAP usage climbing by several hundred per cent at some schools over three years, and in a few cases by more than 1,000 per cent. Quinn has not named which colleges are under suspicion.
Trillium does not appear to be one of them. Its campuses were not among the six schools where Quinn previously denied OSAP eligibility earlier this year, and the FOI data shows OSAP usage across Trillium’s campuses rose by 64 per cent between 2021-22 and 2024-25, a comparatively modest increase that includes a new campus opening during that period.
The surge in OSAP usage at some private schools seems tied to a provincial policy change made during the pandemic, which opened OSAP eligibility to students in online or asynchronous programs and later made that change permanent. Quinn has said many of the serious concerns trace back to online-only programs, and the government plans to introduce legislation this fall to make those programs ineligible for OSAP again.
What it means for residents
For families in St. Catharines, Kingston, Oshawa, Sudbury and Cobourg with students at Trillium, this means classes are paused right now with no firm return date announced. Students relying on OSAP to pay tuition are being asked to consider interest-free payment plans, though many say that isn’t workable without the funding itself. As someone who lives in this community and talks to neighbors dealing with this firsthand, it’s worth watching for updates directly from Trillium about a return-to-class plan, and from the province about any low-interest loan options or a timeline for restoring OSAP payments.
