Restricting the number of international students in colleges and universities has been big news in Ontario since last January, when the federal government finally brought some rationality to what had become a back-door immigration plan.
The federal change has major implications for the province, but nine months later, the Doug Ford government is still struggling to deliver a coherent response to the Liberal action, even though Ontario is where its greatest effects will be felt.
In 2023, there were 526,000 foreign students in Ontario, just over half the Canadian total. The Liberal plan will slow the flow of foreign-student tuition to Ontario’s colleges and universities, significantly weakening the finances of Ontario’s underfunded post-secondary sector. It will also limit what had been an abundant supply of cheap student labour for fast-food restaurants and retailers.
It’s past time for the Ford government to tell Ontarians whether reducing the number of foreign students is good or bad for the province and whether the province is for or against the Liberal policy.
For years, the federal Liberals slept while a parallel immigration system expanded essentially without controls. Even students who signed up for a generic business course at a private college were entitled to work in Canada after graduation. At the end of 2023, when the light bulb finally came on for the feds that the vast numbers coming in were exacerbating housing shortages and other problems, there were just over 1,000,000 international students in Canada, an increase of 63 per cent in five years.
Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller decreed that the number of new study permits would be cut by 35 per cent from 2023 levels. Over three years, the number would be adjusted down from 6.1 per cent of the total population to five per cent, still a rather substantial figure. The plan was subsequently altered to link student permits closely to job market needs and to introduce mandatory language testing.
In all, it seems like the kind of change the Ford government would welcome, but the government hasn’t had much to say. Back in April, Ford offered the idea that post-secondary education in Ontario should only be for Ontario students, saying “our kids first.” It seemed like an unusual position and was quickly clarified to say that the premier was referring only to medical schools. Last week, Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn made some generic comments about the importance of international students to the labour market without saying whether he backed the Liberal plan.
It’s not as if Ontario or Canada has an obligation to train every student who wants to come here
Others have been less reticent. Ontario college and university leaders have weighed in, as have foreign students and their supporters. The colleges and universities have praised the virtues of international students, arguing that they provide much-needed new skills and brainpower.
It’s a self-serving argument, given the amount of tuition money provided by international students. In Ontario, those student fees provide 31 per cent of total college revenue and 20 per cent of university revenue. The numbers are so high because Ontario colleges and universities charge foreign students about five times as much as they charge Canadian students.
Some post-secondary supporters would like to create the impression that the new federal rules are driving international students out of Canada. That’s hardly the case. Ontario has 235,000 new international student permits for this school year.
It’s not as if Ontario or Canada has an obligation to train every student who wants to come here. More than half of the international students are from either India or China, two countries that are not friends of Canada and that are perfectly capable of educating their own people.
So where does the Ford government stand on all of this?
It’s not that hard to formulate an opinion on the two key points. Aligning post-secondary training with labour shortages in health, trades and tech is in sync with Ontario’s favoured approach. So, two thumbs up for that. Some employers will miss the student labour, but it’s difficult to argue that Ontario should be flooded with low-wage workers when it has a 6.9-per-cent unemployment rate.
The post-secondary financial part is a little trickier, at least politically. Using tax dollars to replace foreign student tuition would be expensive when the government can get more low-cost political mileage out of talking about bike lanes and a new pothole fund.
The Ford government needs to step back and look at the larger picture. A province with big economic ambitions needs strong universities and colleges to train its workers. As an expert panel pointed out last year, Ontario’s funding is significantly below the national average. Unlike much of what government calls investing, post-secondary spending actually produces a dividend that benefits both the economy and Ontario’s young people. Like Ford himself said, “our kids first.”
In the long run, what’s smarter, investing in battery plants or investing in people?
National Post
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