This report will summarize the areas of agreement that the TCAF committee has reached consensus on in its deliberations since the TCAF Forum held in Toronto on December 10, 2001. It will also summarize the areas where the committee needs to do more work, as well as those topics that will be left to the TCAF Governing Board to address.

• All TCAF participating institutions must obtain a surety bond annually in accordance with the committee’s recommended bond table included as part of this report.
• All TCAF participating institutions that have been "registered" for less than 6 years must obtain a surety bond that is 50% higher than that required for participating institutions that have been "registered" for more than 5 years.
• The minimum level of bonding must remain at the current levels of $20,000 for TCAF participating institutions that have been registered for more than 5 years, and $30,000 for younger TCAF participating institutions.
• The bonding table recommended by the committee must take effect for TCAF participating institutions as of January 2003.
• The TCAF must be able to make a claim against the surety bond to recover some or all of the costs associated with a train-out. To do so, the students being trained out must be able to assign their ability to make claims against the bond to TCAF. It is the committee’s understanding that train-out schools have been able to, in the past, have students assign their claims over to the train-out school. (note: bonding companies do not seem to be aware of this practice, and currently some schools are having a difficult time in reducing their bond)

Structure

• TCAF will consist of participating institutions that will be considered to be the members of the organization.
• TCAF will be governed by a Board. The Board composition will be three to five (3 to 5) OACC members that are also TCAF members, one to two (1 to 2) non OACC institutions that are TCAF members, and up to two (2) non "industry" representatives. A Government Liaison person that will collaborate with TCAF must be appointed by the Deputy Minister.
• In addition to the Governing Board, there will be a professional train-out team.
• There are two distinct bodies (although some of the members may serve on both bodies). The first body is the Board of TCAF that is responsible for the administration of the fund. The second body is the "swat team" which takes responsibility for all matters relating to the organization of the training completion plan. The Board would be responsible for setting fees, collecting fees, overseeing the financial status of the organization, and reporting to members annually. The swat team would in fact go into a school at the time of bankruptcy and pull everything together and act as a liaison between Ministry, train out schools and students.
• TCAF should be a non-profit organization
• The Board should be comprised of unpaid volunteers
• Any training completion plan should fully utilize any outstanding revenues to come in from students or their funders, and minimize the cost of any on-going expenses.
• PCC sector Board members to be elected by TCAF members
• Non sector Board members to be appointed by the elected PCC sector board members
• There will be no student/graduate seats on the Board
• Fiscal year will run from April 1 to March 31
• The Board will appoint a team of training completion experts to draw upon on a case by case basis to develop the most appropriate training completion plan within two weeks of a school closing

• Participation in TCAF will be open to all "registered" private career colleges in Ontario.
• Students enrolled in all diploma and certificate programs at TCAF participating institutions will be entitled to access train-out services from TCAF, provided those programs are at least 12 weeks in length and delivered within a 20 week period.
• TCAF will provide train-out services to students whose programs have been funded by agencies such as HRDC, pending recognition of TCAF participating institutions by those agencies.

• TCAF must have assurance from Government that it is prepared to backstop the fund during its ramp up time or in the case of a shortfall as a result of a large hit on the fund.
• The TCAF Board must keep the fund viable to serve its purpose.
• TCAF must keep collection of participation fees simple, once per year based on tuition revenues reported on financial statements. Annually, the fund would catch up on any shortages or overages of fees collected.
• The TCAF fees will be based on .15% of tuition revenues for the first year of operation, and subsequent rates will be determined by the Governing Board, in accordance with current needs.

• The decision as to whether or not TCAF should implement a fund cap will be left to the Governing Board.
• The treatment of institutions wanting to participate, in the case where the owners have previously owned an institution that has accessed the fund will be addressed by the Governing board.
• The use of any funds raised by TCAF for marketing and public relations will be deferred to the Governing Board.
• The decision as to whether TCAF should be open to private universities will be deferred to the Governing board.

• The issue of a trust fund is still to be decided by the committee. A questionnaire for career colleges on this topic will be posted on the web site in March.
• Committee still has to work with funding agencies such as HRDC about differentiating between registered and private trainers (i.e. TCAF participants)
• The committee still has to determine the TCAF messaging around the tag of "responsible trainers acting responsibly".
• The committee is investigating any legalities around using "Assurance" versus "assurance".
• The committee will review marketing and administration budgets at its next meeting.
• The committee will work on the development of by-laws and a nomination process.