It is the turn of foreign students to undergo new restrictions to reduce the volume of temporary immigrants. Ottawa will reduce the number of study permits granted by another 10% next year and make it more difficult to extend a stay after studies.
Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller made the announcement in Ottawa on Wednesday, along with his Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault. The two ministers said at a press conference that the additional measures announced on Wednesday and in recent months will help achieve the goal of reducing the proportion of non-permanent residents to 5% of the total population.
“It’s a privilege to come to Canada, not a right,” Miller said, admitting that some aspects of temporary immigration have “overheated.”
A total of 437,000 study permits will be issued in 2025, a ceiling that will remain stable in 2026, assured Minister Miller. A maximum number per province is allocated, but Quebec is still far from it since the province receives fewer international students compared to the others. This measure should therefore have less of an impact on Quebec institutions.
Across Canada, international students, their chaperones and recent international graduates represent approximately 50 per cent of the total number of temporary immigrants, Mr. Miller said. These are therefore also the categories targeted by the other measures announced.
The possibility of applying for a post-graduation work permit for college students will now be “aligned with our economic priorities.” Their field of study will have to be linked to shortages in the Canadian labour market, he continued without giving further details on the exact mechanism. Language requirements will also be imposed to obtain this permit, starting on March 1.er november.
The Trudeau government hopes that these measures will reduce the number of student or student-related permits by 300,000 over the next three years.
Some spouses of international students and other temporary immigrants will no longer be able to apply for open work permits.
A limit on the number of hours these students can work off campus during their stay will also soon be in effect, between 20 and 30 hours maximum.
Simplified processing affected
Mr. Boissonnault recalled all the measures concerning the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. He also confirmed, as revealed by The Duty Tuesday that the 10% cap and the freeze on low-wage hiring did indeed apply to positions under the “simplified treatment.”
This mechanism includes a list of professions identified by Quebec as having a labour shortage, which until now benefited from flexibility. In particular, there was no cap on the proportion of temporary workers in these jobs and no obligation to show efforts to recruit locally.
The decision was welcomed by unions. “With labour shortages having been practically resolved in several sectors, it was necessary to quickly limit this form of exploitation,” said Caroline Senneville, president of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux.
The Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ) said it was “dismayed” by all the announcements. The 10% cap on low-wage positions in simplified processing “will weaken many businesses, particularly in the regions,” said Karl Blackburn, president and CEO of the CPQ, in a press release. He deplores the fact that even professions with a labour shortage are now directly affected: “We are putting obstacles in the way of businesses that are running out of solutions to find employees.”