Earlier this week, Justin Trudeau made headlines for a few comments uttered at the end of a press conference in Nova Scotia announcing a $6-billion infrastructure fund to help build affordable housing. A reporter asked him about Canada’s efforts to slow immigration. Trudeau said that Canada has, in recent years, admitted too many temporary foreign workers and international students. He said the pace has been “at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.” He added that the government needs to get the numbers under control.
Was he saying that his government hasn’t been in control of immigration? That’s how it sounded to me. As much as I admire the impulse to course-correct, I found his admission rattling. If the government hasn’t been in control of how many people enter the country, then who has been? University and college leaders are even more exasperated. For years they’ve relied on a surge of international students to cover their costs. Then, in January, the Trudeau government announced a cap on student visas, with plans to issue 25 per cent fewer than it had in 2023.
Maureen Adamson, president of Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario, is one of many college administrators impacted by the international student whiplash. In a candid interview with Maclean’s, she says her college could experience up to a 50 per cent drop in international-student enrolment next semester, resulting in program reductions and major budget headaches. Adamson is optimistic in her outlook, but I sympathize: surely her pain could have been avoided if someone, ideally the government, had been in control in the first place.
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
