COLLEGES AND INSTITUTES CANADA
CICan's Statement on International Student Reforms

On September 18, Ministers Miller and Boissonnault announced a series of reforms to reduce the number of temporary residents to Canada, including further reductions to overall international student numbers and changes to post-graduate work eligibility.

The announcement preserves the eligibility of thousands of current international students in the country to work after their studies in Canada. This treats these students fairly and we support it.

The cap level announced for 2025 and 2026 brings predictability in planning for Canada's excellent public postsecondary education system and for prospective students. This is an incredibly important measure that will strengthen the integrity of the program as it gives provinces and institutions the ability to work together.

Unfortunately, the other measures announced will do significant harm, specifically to local communities. CICan believes that instead of building a collaborative approach between institutions, provinces and territories, and communities, Ottawa has chosen to implement a counterproductive and one-size-fits-all policy to meeting the country's labour market needs.

The core mission of Canada's colleges and institutes is to serve their community needs. Local business leaders sit on our boards and program advisory committees, our campuses are designed to support community objectives, and our system leaders work to improve the well-being of those who live in the towns and cities they serve.  

Yesterday's announcement removes open eligibility for the Post Graduate Work Permit (PGWP) program only for students going through Canada's public colleges. It forces colleges to align with national labour market targets. This creates a fundamental disconnect between the pressing needs of local labour markets and the essential contributions of skilled international graduates from the over 10,000 diploma and degree programs in high demand fields across our network. And by making eligibility for the post-graduate work permit dependent on national labour market needs, the federal government will make it fundamentally impossible to align our programs to what our communities need.

To cite an example from Minister Boissonnault: There are tens of thousands of unfilled construction jobs across the country. The industry is also facing a looming wave of retirements that will see roughly 20 percent of Canada's construction workers retire within less than 10 years. No where in today's announcement were there measures to support colleges' abilities to make it easier for international students to pursue studies in these fields.

Fundamentally, these reforms prevent Canada from leveraging our public colleges and institutes to do what they do best - that is to respond to labour market needs in real time to address the economic challenges of their communities. We call on the federal government to work with our members and provincial and territorial governments to deliver on the promise of international education and immigration for Canada's communities and our economy.