This time last year, Khalsa Aid Canada says it was receiving five calls a week from international students in Brampton needing food, clothing and a place to live.
Now, amid worsening housing and affordability crises, it says it’s receiving five calls a day — a figure well beyond what it can handle.
The international charity, the Canadian branch of which helps over 8,200 students struggling to access food, clothes, and shelter in cities nationwide, says the government and post-secondary institutions should be doing more to support international students in need.
With nearly 500,000 international students living in the Greater Toronto Area, Khalsa Aid’s national director Jindi Singh says charities are under strain, taking on more than their fair share of the load.
“We truly feel it’s not really our role,” he said.
Post-secondary institutions are “making billions out of this situation,” Singh said, but “there’s absolutely no wrap-around services for these students, who are left to fend for themselves.”
He says it’s time for the post-secondary institutions and governments responsible for the situation to take ownership and get to the root of the problem.
Jindi Singh, national director at Khalsa Aid criticized governments and post-secondary institutions for their lack of international student support, ‘They’re making billions out of this situation,’ he said. ‘There’s absolutely no wrap-around services for these students, who are left to fend for themselves.’ (Submitted by Jindi Singh)
Supporting international students is a complex undertaking, Singh says — one that involves navigating bad faith programs, fraudulent immigration agents, mental health issues and uncertainty about immigration policy and the permits needed to reside in the country.
The president of the College Student Alliance, Azi Afousi, agrees, adding that the lack of affordability makes the situation worse. Afousi says student unions across Ontario have reported fielding more calls about housing struggles, while one of her own colleagues shares a house with 15 other people.
“Housing in the GTA is like the wild, wild west,” Afousi said.
International students’ ability to make ends meet is also impacted by federal limitations on how much income can be earned, which, Singh says, further limits their job opportunities. Recent changes to the International Student Program, including a cap on study permits, have only added to the uncertainty.
“Your housing is affected, food is affected, mental health,” Afousi said. “With students it’s even more drastic because your academic output is affected.”
With no housing or jobs, Singh said, “It’s a homeless camp situation.”
He says the situation is acute in Brampton, a city with 35 federally licensed colleges that attract tens of thousands of international students annually. Since last June, Khalsa Aid has delivered over 5,000 grocery bags full of non-perishable food to international students.
‘Chronic underfunding’ to blame: student advocate
International students pay four times more tuition than domestic students. For colleges and governments to not provide wrap-around services like housing, food and job referrals, is a “pure money grab,” Singh said.
Afousi says the problem is exacerbated by Ontario’s “chronic underfunding” of post-secondary education.
International students make up 68 per cent of tuition revenue at 24 Ontario colleges, and over 90 per cent at some Northern Ontario colleges, according to a 2021 provincial auditor general report.
Peel Region charities are sounding the alarm about a ‘crisis’ among international students. Since last June, Khalsa Aid has delivered over 5,000 grocery bags full of non-perishable food to international students in Brampton. (Submitted by Jindi Khalsa)
International students from India alone contributed $2 billion to Ontario’s post-secondary institutions’ operating income last year, compared to roughly $1.8 billion the provincial government contributed, according to a September 2023 report by consulting firm Higher Education Strategy Associates.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities did not respond to questions about whether the province would increase its funding. Instead, the spokesperson pointed to a January news release which said the province is looking into requiring all colleges and universities to have guaranteed housing options for incoming international students.
While Mattoo and Singh both say they welcome the cap on permits, they want the government to put in place more support for international students currently in Canada who are having a hard time.
Singh says he blames the federal government for bringing in record-high numbers of international students — 800,000 in 2022, then 900,000 in 2023 — without making sure there was adequate housing.
“Who dropped the ball?”
Ottawa ‘pausing’ international student admissions to ensure they ‘get the right experience’: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada’s two-year cap on new international student permits will both ensure students get a quality education and ease housing pressures.
International students “are not responsible for the shortage of housing,” said Julie Lafortune, spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in a statement to CBC Toronto.
Lafortune said, “It is clear that the number of students arriving in Canada has become unsustainable.”
In December, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced an increase to the cost-of-living financial requirement for study permit applicants from $10,000 to $20,635. Lafortune said that amount will now be adjusted each year so that international students have “enough money to support themselves.”
“A student who arrives without adequate funds is more vulnerable to being exploited by an employer or might feel forced to accept a poor housing situation,” she said.
In Brampton, charity sees ‘unprecedented’ level of struggle
While the federal government suggested its new cap on study permits will help ease the housing crunch, organizations including Khalsa Aid, the World Sikh Organization, the College Students Association and Sukhmani Haven say the cap doesn’t do anything to help those already here.
“We’re seeing unprecedented levels of people struggling,” Sukhmani Haven board member Deepa Mattoo told CBC Toronto.
Sukhmani Haven is seeing ‘unprecedented levels of people struggling,’ said board member Deepa Mattoo. (Submitted by Deepa Mattoo)
More than one dozen volunteers run Sukhmani Haven, a Mississauga-based organization that rents a duplex home in Brampton to house eight international students for free — a feat that took months of applying to rent 50 different houses and receiving dozens of rejections before eventually signing a lease.
“It is really complicated right now,” said Mattoo, who is also a lawyer at Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic
“There’s not a lot of renting spaces available or they’re available at such a high price that basically you get priced out.”
The IRCC says non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for the Affordable Housing Fund to construct, maintain, and repair affordable housing and shelter spaces.
“We need all levels of government at the table with us on this,” Lafortune said.
Sukhmani Haven hosted a fundraiser dinner in 2022, which has allowed the charity to house 34 students on a short and long term basis, in addition to providing some with financial aid, tuition bursaries, pro bono legal services and support via a crisis hotline.
But the organization says it’s concerned about its ability to keep up, which worries those for whom it’s a lifeline.
Sheridan College business student Simranpreet Kaur moved into the organization’s Brampton rental two months ago following a months-long search for housing that left the international student from India feeling “so depressed.”
Sukhmani Haven introduced Kaur to other students with similar experiences, which she says helped her feel less alone.
“It helped me a lot because I can easily share my feelings with everyone,” she said.
MONTREAL – The employers association at the Port of Montreal has issued the dockworkers’ union a “final, comprehensive offer,” threatening to lock out workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if a deal isn’t reached.
The Maritime Employers Association says its new offer includes a three per cent salary increase per year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package of a longshore worker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.
“The MEA agrees to this significant compensation increase in view of the availability required from its employees,” it wrote Thursday evening in a news release.
The association added that it is asking longshore workers to provide at least one hour’s notice when they will be absent from a shift — instead of one minute — to help reduce management issues “which have a major effect on daily operations.”
Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, which represents nearly 1,200 longshore workers, launched a partial unlimited strike on Oct. 31, which has paralyzed two terminals that represent 40 per cent of the port’s total container handling capacity.
A complete strike on overtime, affecting the whole port, began on Oct. 10.
The union has said it will accept the same increases that were granted to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver — 20 per cent over four years. It is also concerned with scheduling and work-life balance. Workers have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2023.
Only essential services and activities unrelated to longshoring will continue at the port after 9 p.m. Sunday in the event of a lockout, the employer said.
The ongoing dispute has had major impacts at Canada’s second-biggest port, which moves some $400 million in goods every day.
On Thursday, Montreal port authority CEO Julie Gascon reiterated her call for federal intervention to end the dispute, which has left all container handling capacity at international terminals at “a standstill.”
“I believe that the best agreements are negotiated at the table,” she said in a news release. “But let’s face it, there are no negotiations, and the government must act by offering both sides a path to true industrial peace.”
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Thursday, prior to the lockout notice, in which he criticized the slow pace of talks at the ports in Montreal and British Columbia, where more than 700 unionized port workers have been locked out since Nov. 4.
“Both sets of talks are progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved,” he wrote on the X social media platform.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Employers and the union representing supervisors embroiled in a labour dispute that triggered a lockout at British Columbia‘s ports will attempt to reach a deal when talks restart this weekend.
A spokesman from the office of federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has confirmed the minister spoke with leaders at both the BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, but did not invoke any section of the Canadian Labour Code that would force them back to talks.
A statement from the ministry says MacKinnon instead “asked them to return to the negotiation table,” and talks are now scheduled to start on Saturday with the help of federal mediators.
A meeting notice obtained by The Canadian Press shows talks beginning in Vancouver at 5 p.m. and extendable into Sunday and Monday, if necessary.
The lockout at B.C. ports by employers began on Monday after what their association describes as “strike activity” from the union. The result was a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals across Canada’s west coast.
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint against the employers for allegedly bargaining in bad faith, a charge that employers call a “meritless claim.”
The two sides have been without a deal since March 2023, and the employers say its final offer presented last week in the last round of talks remains on the table.
The proposed agreement includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term along with an average lump sum payment of $21,000 per qualified worker.
The union has said one of its key concerns is the advent of port automation in cargo operations, and workers want assurances on staffing levels regardless of what technology is being used at the port.
The disruption is happening while two container terminals are shut down in Montreal in a separate labour dispute.
It leaves container cargo traffic disrupted at Canada’s two biggest ports, Vancouver and Montreal, both operating as major Canadian trade gateways on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
This is one of several work disruptions at the Port of Vancouver, where a 13-day strike stopped cargo last year, while labour strife in the rail and grain-handling sectors led to further disruptions earlier this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Judicial recounts in British Columbia‘s provincial election should wrap up today, confirming whether Premier David Eby’s New Democrats hang onto their one-seat majority almost three weeks after the vote.
Most attention will be on the closest race of Surrey-Guildford, where the NDP were ahead by a mere 27 votes, a margin narrow enough to trigger a hand recount of more than 19,000 ballots that’s being overseen by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
Elections BC spokesman Andrew Watson says the recounts are on track to conclude today, but certification won’t happen until next week following an appeal period.
While recounts aren’t uncommon in B.C. elections, result changes because of them are rare, with only one race overturned in the province in at least the past 20 years.
That was when Independent Vicki Huntington went from trailing by two votes in Delta South to winning by 32 in a 2009 judicial recount.
Recounts can be requested after the initial count in an election for a variety of reasons, while judicial recounts are usually triggered after the so-called “final count” when the margin is less than 1/500th of the number of votes cast.
There have already been two full hand recounts this election, in Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat, and both only resulted in a few votes changing sides.
A partial recount of votes that went through one tabulator in Kelowna Centre saw the margin change by four votes, while a full judicial recount is currently underway in the same riding, narrowly won by the B.C. Conservatives.
The number of votes changing hands in recounts has generally shrunk in B.C. in recent years.
Judicial recounts in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky in 2020 and Coquitlam-Maillardville in 2013 saw margins change by 19 and six votes respectively.
In 2005, there were a record eight recounts after the initial tally, changing margins by an average of 62 votes, while one judicial recount changed the margin in Vancouver-Burrard by seven.
The Election Act says the deadline to appeal results after judicial recounts must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Watson says that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period ends at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
When an appeal is filed, it must be heard no later than 10 days after the registrar receives the notice of appeal.
A partial recount is also taking place in Prince George-Mackenzie to tally votes from an uncounted ballot box that contained about 861 votes.
The Prince George recount won’t change the outcome because the B.C. Conservative candidate there won by more than 5,000 votes.
If neither Surrey-Guildford nor Kelowna Centre change hands, the NDP will have 47 seats and the Conservatives 44, while the Greens have two seats in the 93-riding legislature.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
