The Canadian Government has emphasized the need for a system that ensures people have financial capability to come to Canada.
This is even as Canada is set to impose a national cap to reduce the intake of international students.
According to the country’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, during a media interview recently, the Canadian government must have a meeting with provincial governments “to make sure that the provinces that have not been doing their jobs actually rein in those numbers on a pure volume basis.”
“That volume is disconcerting,” Miller said, in reference to the number of international students in Canada. “It’s really a system that has gotten out of control.”
Recall Canada had raised its “cost-of-living financial requirement for study permit applicants,” basically for international students, to $20,000 from $10,000 starting from January 1, 2024.
Reacting to the new development, Miller said, “The Canadian government has faced criticism for welcoming an increasing number of immigrants — both permanent and temporary residents — while the country faces an acute housing shortage.”
Meanwhile, new reporting by The Canadian Press — citing internal documents obtained through an access to information request — shows the government was warned by public servants two years ago that its ambitious immigration targets could jeopardise housing affordability.
The Liberals have set targets aiming to bring in 485,000 immigrants this year, and 500,000 in both 2025 and 2026.
Temporary residents, largely comprised of international students and migrant workers, are another part of the equation, with more than 300,000 of them arriving in Canada in just the third quarter of last year.
Miller said he’ll be looking in both the first and second quarter of this year at possibly setting a cap on international students to help reduce the demand for housing.
When asked why his government is only considering a cap now, when the idea of one has been floated for months, Miller said there’s a need to sort out numbers on a federal level before looking with “a little more granularity” at what individual academic institutions are doing in different provinces, possibly profiting off bringing in more international students.
“We need to be doing our jobs and making sure that we have a system that actually makes sure people have a financial capability to come to Canada, that we’re actually verifying offer letters,” Miller said.
