Over the past few days, there has been an overflow of articles in the media regarding Canada considering a cap on international students’ permits to address the housing crisis. But has the government made any decision on it yet?
Canada’s new housing minister Sean Fraser, who was previously the immigration minister, was asked in a news conference — if a government-imposed cap on international students could be put in place as a solution to the country’s housing crisis.
He indicated, “I think that is one of the options that we ought to consider but I think we should start by trying to partner with institutions to understand what role they may play to reduce the pressure on the communities that they are operating within.”
Fraser’s comments were made during the August 21-23 cabinet retreat on Prince Edward Island, during which the main focus of discussion was expected to be on the country’s housing crisis.
Fraser’s statement was a response to a question. He continued by saying that the government has not made a decision on the matter.
Fraser said the government needs to do some “serious thinking” about the issue of international student visas.
Quebec’s government, universities, and colleges were quick to reject the idea of putting a cap. According to an article in The Globe and Mail Quebec government said it won’t accept a cap on the number of international students it can admit.
“Universities and colleges, meanwhile, said they were surprised and troubled, respectively, by the suggestion, which was first raised by Housing and Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser,” the article mentioned.
Canada hosted more than 800,000 international students last year, according to the government’s figures. Fraser said he plans to sit down with post-secondary institutions to find out what can be done to make it easier to find living space for those students in a tight rental market, CBC reported.
“If they’re going to continue to bring in record numbers of students, that they are being part of the solution as well by making sure that they have a place to live,” Fraser said.
He also took aim at institutions he accused of exploiting students and exacerbating the housing crisis.”When you see some of these institutions that have five, six times as many students enrolled as they have spaces for them in the building … you’ve got to start to ask yourself some pretty tough questions,” he said.
Fraser’s response comes in the wake of the growing housing crisis in Canada. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), Canada needs to build 5.8 million new homes — including two million rental units — by 2030 in order to tackle housing affordability.
Addressing the housing crisis is one of the main goals of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was quick to take a dig at Justin Trudeau and his team. Poilievre feels Trudeau is undermining the confidence in Canada’s immigration system because of his failure to build homes.
“Justin Trudeau would love Canadians to blame immigrants for the housing prices that he has doubled. But immigrants are just following the rules that he put in place. So how can we blame them and not him? He’s the one who gave us the worst inflation crisis in 40 years. He’s the one who sent interest rates on our mortgages rising faster than at any time in monetary history. And now he wants Canadians to forget all of that and blame immigrants.”
Poilievre went on to say:“[Trudeau] wants to divide people to distract from his failings. He thinks if you’re afraid of your neighbour you might forget that you can’t pay your rent. This is what demagogues do. Justin Trudeau’s been dividing people his entire life, and I suspect that he will get even nastier and more divisive now as people realize the misery that he has brought down on them.”
