Conestoga College is not the one to blame for immigration mess
It takes a certain level of nerve — no, make that sheer unmitigated gall — for a federal minister of immigration to blame the country’s immigration problems on a college in southern Ontario.
But last week, Immigration Minister Marc Miller, speaking in an online forum hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University, turned Conestoga College into his scapegoat.
This Liberal government has dramatically increased temporary immigration — which includes more international students. No institute of higher education took advantage of this more than Conestoga College, which received federal approval for more than 51,000 foreign students over 2022 and 2023.
That’s more than double the visas approved for any other school, and it is 12 times more foreign students than were approved to attend the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.
Conestoga College improved its own financial security by doing this, because international students pay far higher tuition.
It reported a $106-million surplus at the end of the 2023 fiscal year.
“There is at least one institution in Ontario that had a $100-million positive balance at the end of the year. And that in my mind isn’t the vocation of a college or university,” Miller said.
“Not that I would deny any one the right to gain profit, but you’re doing it on a bunch of people that have sometimes had their family earnings pooled into one person, their hopes and dreams into one person … on the basis of that dream that I believe still exists, and have it dashed quickly when they can’t get a job or get a crappy education and then have to file for asylum in some of the worst-case scenarios,” he added.
Well, hold on.
We all know that many international students have been miserable here. But who is most responsible?
Some of these vulnerable students live in overcrowded conditions with many people sharing an apartment.
They have approached local food banks for free food.
They have often arrived with insufficient language skills to be successful at their program or in finding work. Hundreds have filed for refugee status.
The college was rightly held to account by the community for some of these problems. It is now planning more residences for the students. But who gave these students the false information that they needed only $10,000 a year to live in a community like Waterloo Region? The federal government.
The Trudeau government also knew it was creating housing shortages when it ramped up immigration.
In 2023, more than 900,000 foreign students had visas to study in Canada, triple the number 10 years ago.
Federal public servants warned the government two years ago that such large increases to immigration could affect housing affordability.
Yet, Canada’s pace of population growth continued to set historic records. The population grew by more than 430,000 during the third quarter of 2023.
There’s no doubt that Conestoga College took advantage.
But the college didn’t create the situation.
It’s the federal government that approves students to come into this country, and sets the rules by which they enter. Not the college.
The federal government approves the visas, manages the numbers, and has the ability to regulate the recruiters who go abroad and encourage students to come to Canada.
It’s the government’s poor planning that has led to misery, not only for the students but also for lifelong Canadians, for whom housing is in shorter supply because the demand is so fierce.
When he was in town a month ago, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre alluded to this issue and placed the blame squarely where it belongs.
At a recent news conference in Kitchener, he said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “through his total incompetence, opened the floodgates, in a way that was disconnected from the number of homes to house people, and the amount of jobs to employ them.”
Miller has now ordered a twoyear cap on foreign student visas. But it’s too little, too late. And it’s on him.
‘‘ There is at least one institution in Ontario that had a $100-million positive balance at the end of the year. And that in my mind isn’t the vocation of a college or university.
MARC MILLER IMMIGRATION MINISTER