TORONTO: Canada on Monday announced a two-year cap on foreign student visas to ease the pressure on housing, healthcare and other services.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that there will be a 35 percent reduction in new student visas in 2024. He said that the foreign students’ program has been exploited by institutions offering fake degrees, putting pressure on housing and health care system of the country.
The number of new visas will be capped at 364,000. Last year about 560,000 such visas were issued by the Canadian government.
According to a government statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet retreat in Montreal will prioritize affordability and housing this week.
The government said that there are about 1 million international students in the country now, and without any intervention this number would keep growing.
Miller added that officials have been working on stabilizing the number of people entering in Canada yearly as housing pressures intensifies.
Canadian population has reached 40 million, while many Canadians struggle with an increased cost of living, including mortgages and rents.
The immigration minister said that there are unscrupulous schools that charge high tuition fees from foreign students but do not offer a solid education in return. In some cases, the schools are a way into Canada for students who can convert their visas into permanent residencies.
Miller said it is not the intention of this program to have fake degrees.
“If you need a dedicated channel for Uber drivers in Canada, I can design that, but that isn’t the intention of the international student program,” he said.
The leader of the opposition Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, blamed Trudeau for issuing study permits to tens of thousands of students who attend fake institutions.
