Background

Documenting this issue required that we look both at what is not available and at what is available. Each province is different and our immediate sources of information were largely from Ontario. Therefore, we limited our investigation to that province. Even with this limitation we found conflicting information. However, to the best of our current knowledge, the situation in Ontario is:

a.) What is available is:

• Manpower allowances for those who have been admitted to BTSD or Language programs and who are eligible for support according to the rules and allowance scale of the CEIC.
  
  
• Ontario Study Grant Plan is provided for those who are attending adult basic education programs attached to community colleges or universities. The rules for OSAP are relatively generous and provide for day care expenses
  
  
• the Ontario Student Loan Plan is available for part-time students or students enrolled in short courses not covered by the Ontario Study Grant Plan. These loans are repayable on fairly good terms. The loans must be used to attend a publicly funded college or university in Ontario.
  
  
• the Ontario Special Bursary Plan provides non-repayable funds to those who have little or no post-secondary education and whose financial circumstances are poor. Funds are available only for part-time study which is defined as 60% or less of a normal course load. The conditions of the plan include that persons be receiving social assistance, be unemployed or have a low income family. Course work must be for the purposes of earning a degree, diploma or certificate, or for upgrading programs in a community college.
  
  
• transportation and child care subsidies are available if the woman is receiving social assistance and is registered in a class requiring 25 hours or more of class and study time per week or makes a round trip to attend classes of more than 30 miles. However, the woman must accept whatever child care services are assigned to her. For these subsidies, financial need for the purposes of working have a higher priority than financial need for the purposes of attending school.
  
  
• municipal funds for rehabilitation (if the municipality decides to provide these - the policy of the province is permissive rather than obligatory). Generally these funds are available for only one member of a family and can be applied only to programs not funded by Manpower.
  
  
• some bursaries are available through non-governmental agencies but these are invariably for assistance to women in adult basic education programs in post-secondary institutions. We were informed that women attending school at a lower level do not require assistance.
  
  
• free tuition is generally available through boards of education and local community agencies. Community colleges and universities charge tuition fees to non-Manpower students (which would then be covered by OSAP or various private bursaries).
  
  
• child care services are provided as part of selected programs provided by some boards of education and by the ESL programs of the Ministry of Culture and Recreation.
  
  
• some programs provide all services (eg. the Toronto YWCA's Focus on Change) but these are limited in number, area served and type of participant.