Ontario paid $194,700 to make a refugee programme accessible. Its own agency says accessibility is outside its role.
Refused 26 August 2026 · the Foundation answered 24 and 25 September 2026 · published 24 September 2026, updated 25 September 2026 · Danilo Dzyuban, Ottawa · the grant record and the Foundation's letter are reproduced in full: the grant as published, the first letter as received, the second letter as received, the Foundation's own access channel
The Ontario Trillium Foundation is an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming. It gave a refugee employment charity $194,700 of provincial money to hire a Client Relations Lead and to adapt its services. The charity told the public the money let it increase its accessibility. Two years later the charity told a refugee claimant it could not serve him without a telephone number, and said no written policy stood behind that. Asked what its grant bought, the Foundation answered that the question is outside its role, and linked a page that contradicts the answer.
What the Foundation paid for, in the Foundation's own words
Our organization, with a $194,700 Resilient Communities Fund grant over 24 months, will recover and build its resiliency from impacts of COVID-19 by hiring a Client Relations Lead and providing resources and technology for staff to adapt programming and services to meet the needs of community.
Ontario Trillium Foundation, grant record 3265, DESCRIPTION field — otf.ca/grants-awarded/3265
The same record carries a second field. Under GRANT RESULT it reads, in part: “Adapt or add-new program and service delivery to meet the changing needs of the community because of COVID-19.” Under POPULATION SERVED it reads: “Other racialized groups, People who are newcomers/refugees.” The grant status is Closed.
What the grantee told the public the money bought
Jumpstart was able to increase its accessibility by fully adapting all programming to be remote, invested in cloud-based technologies to deliver virtual programming, provided professional development training to its staff, and hired staff to engage 1,000+ clients through needs assessment and career readiness programming.
Jumpstart-Refugee Talent, press release of 6 December 2024, issued over the Foundation's grant
MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam and MPP Chris Glover are quoted in that release. The grant closed in November 2024. The release came a month later.
What the same organization wrote to a refugee claimant in August 2026
On 18 August 2026 I wrote to Jumpstart-Refugee Talent. My first message said that I communicate in writing and do not take calls. They invited me to register on 19 August. I registered on 20 August and repeated the request. A staff member called my number without notice on 21 August. I repeated the request the same day and offered to answer the whole intake in the email thread. On 26 August 2026 the answer came.
If you wish to continue with our services, we will need a Canadian phone number where we can reach you to schedule this initial step. Without a phone number, unfortunately, we are unable to proceed with the process.
Talent Assistant, Jumpstart-Refugee Talent, 26 August 2026
On 27 August 2026 I asked for the written policy behind that requirement, its date of adoption, and the name of the person who approved it. A Senior Manager, Client Engagement replied for the organization.
We are a national organization in Canada, and all our services are provided remotely. This is not a policy; this is a process that we have adopted since our inception in 2016. … we are not able to do intakes and offer services over email. … If the virtual setting is not convenient for you, then feel free to reach out to other organizations, as we don't have a physical office in Ottawa.
Senior Manager, Client Engagement, Jumpstart-Refugee Talent, 27 August 2026
All services are provided remotely. Email is a remote channel. What was refused was not distance. It was writing.
What the Foundation answered on 24 September 2026
The grant, described on OTF's website, was awarded to support organizational capacity-building activities and was not intended to fund the delivery or oversight of direct services to participants. … Because the incident you described occurred after the grant had ended, and because the funded project was focused on organizational capacity rather than direct service delivery, the matter falls outside OTF's grant oversight role. OTF is a project funder. … We do not regulate or monitor an organization's ongoing operations, services, accessibility practices, or accommodation processes once a grant has concluded.
Omar Omar, Community Investments Regional Director, Toronto Region, Ontario Trillium Foundation, 24 September 2026 — the letter in full, as received
The test the Foundation set for itself
The same letter ends with a condition.
Should we identify any information that raises concerns regarding the use of OTF funding during the life of the grant, we will follow up directly with the organization as appropriate.
Ontario Trillium Foundation, 24 September 2026
The use of the funding during the life of the grant is exactly what the grantee described in public on 6 December 2024: accessibility increased, all programming adapted, staff hired to engage more than a thousand clients. Either that accessibility exists, and a refugee claimant asking to be served in writing would have been served, or the account the Foundation was given does not match what the money produced. One party holds the document that settles it. The Foundation holds the grantee's final report.
What the Foundation answered on 25 September 2026, the next morning
The documents were demanded on 24 September. The answer came in 18 hours, from the same Regional Director who had taken 22 days to write the first time.
We have reviewed the information you provided. OTF's position on this matter was set out in our correspondence of September 24, 2026. We do not have any additional information to provide regarding this matter. … As noted previously, OTF's role is to provide project-based funding and to oversee compliance with approved grant requirements during the grant period. The grant referenced in your correspondence concluded in November 2024.
Omar Omar, Community Investments Regional Director, Toronto Region, Ontario Trillium Foundation, 25 September 2026 — the letter in full, as received
That is a third ground in three letters. The first letter was silence for 22 days. The second said the grant was never about direct services, and linked the page that records the grant as paying for a Client Relations Lead and for service delivery. The third says oversight ended with the grant period — after the Foundation itself had written that information about the use of the funding during the life of the grant would be taken up with the organization. The material placed before it is from the life of the grant: the grantee's own public report of 6 December 2024, and the grantee's final report, which the Foundation holds. The Foundation wrote that it reviewed the information and had nothing to add. Its own test was met and it did not apply it.
The sentence that closes the file is not a statement that the records do not exist. No exemption is named. No record is identified as missing. It is a public agency telling a refugee claimant that it will not produce documents about public money.
The door the Foundation keeps open by law, and the lock it put on it
The Foundation publishes its own answer to that sentence.
As an agency of the Government of Ontario, OTF is required to abide by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). … OTF provides the right of access to existing records, in whole or in part, that are in its custody or control.
Ontario Trillium Foundation, Access to Information Policy — captured 25 September 2026
The Foundation maintains a Privacy and Freedom of Information Coordinator and a mailbox for that office. A request under the Act went to it on 25 September 2026 for the four records the Regional Director declined to produce. The statutory clock is 30 days.
Then comes the fee.
Requests must be accompanied with a $5 application fee, in cheque or money order, payable to the Ontario Trillium Foundation. … Please submit your FOI request to: Freedom of Information Request, Ontario Trillium Foundation, c/o Workhaus, 180 Dundas Street West, 25th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8
Ontario Trillium Foundation, Freedom of Information page, captured 25 September 2026
Section 24(1)(c) of the Act and section 5.2 of Regulation 460 fix the amount at $5. Neither prescribes the instrument. The restriction to a cheque or a money order, sent by paper mail to a co-working address in Toronto, is the Foundation's own rule, and the Foundation publishes no record of who made it. Paragraph 2 of section 8 of Regulation 460 names, among the matters the head must weigh, whether a payment of $5 or less is too small to justify requiring payment at all.
The agency's own service standard, applied to the agency
The Foundation's Customer Service Policy commits it to answer inquiries and complaints, written or verbal, within 2 business days. The letter that opened this file was sent on 2 September 2026. The Support Centre answered the same day that a Regional Director would be getting back. The Regional Director answered on 24 September 2026, on the 22nd day. In the interval the questions went to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming and to the Ombudsman of Ontario.
What sits above the Foundation
The Foundation is not a private charity spending its own money. The Government of Ontario's own directory records it as an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, and places it in the portfolio of the Tourism, Culture and Gaming Policy and Program Division. Agency relations and governance sit with the Ministry's Major Attractions, Parks and Operations Division. Provincial agencies fall within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman of Ontario. A body funded by the province, reporting to a minister, wrote that what a grantee does with accessibility after the cheque clears is not its concern.
The record
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2022–2024 | Resilient Communities Fund grant 3265, $194,700 over 24 months, to Jumpstart-Refugee Talent. Population served, as published: people who are newcomers and refugees. |
| Nov 2024 | Grant completed and closed, per the Foundation. |
| 6 Dec 2024 | The grantee publishes that the grant let it increase its accessibility by fully adapting all programming to be remote, and that it hired staff to engage 1,000+ clients. |
| 18–21 Aug 2026 | A refugee claimant in Ottawa asks in writing to be served in writing, three times. A staff member telephones anyway. |
| 26 Aug 2026 | Refusal in writing: without a phone number the organization is unable to proceed. |
| 27 Aug 2026 | A Senior Manager: this is not a policy; it is a process adopted since 2016. No written procedure exists. |
| 2 Sept 2026 | Four questions to the Foundation on the terms of the grant agreement. The Support Centre routes them to a Regional Director the same day. |
| 16 Sept 2026 | The date set for an answer passes in silence. |
| 22 Sept 2026 | The questions go to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, and a complaint about the Foundation goes to the Ombudsman of Ontario. |
| 24 Sept 2026 | The Regional Director answers: outside our oversight role. This page is published, and the answer goes back with four documents demanded by 8 October 2026. |
| 25 Sept 2026 | The Regional Director answers in 18 hours: no additional information to provide, oversight ran only during the grant period. A third ground in three letters. |
| 25 Sept 2026 | A request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act goes to the Foundation's Privacy and Freedom of Information Coordinator for the same four records, and to the Chair of the Board and the Chief Executive Officer for the Board's position. The statutory answer falls due 26 October 2026. |
What is demanded
Four documents, from a public agency about public money: the grantee's final report under grant 3265 and the Foundation's assessment of it; the grant agreement with every clause on accessibility, client service and non-discrimination; a statement of whether the Foundation's Anti-Discrimination policy and its Accessibility and Accommodation policy bind the organizations it funds, and the document that says so; and the name of the officer who certifies that a grant was used for its approved purpose. The date is 8 October 2026. The same four records are now demanded through the statutory channel, where a refusal must name its exemption, with the answer due 26 October 2026. The Foundation is also required to produce the record in which it restricted payment of the $5 application fee to cheque or money order, the date that rule took effect, and the name and title of the officer who approved it.
Verification
The grant record is reproduced field by field at /sources/otf-grant-3265-as-captured-2026-09-24.md, captured from the page the Foundation linked on the day it wrote. The Foundation's letter is reproduced in full at /sources/otf-omar-2026-09-24.txt. The quotations from Jumpstart-Refugee Talent are taken from the email thread of 18 to 27 August 2026 and from the organization's own press release of 6 December 2024.
Citation: Danilo Dzyuban, “Ontario paid $194,700 to make a refugee programme accessible. Its own agency says accessibility is outside its role.” (24 September 2026, updated 25 September 2026).