Ottawa will require foreigners applying to study in Canada to have double the amount of funds currently required, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Thursday.
He also threatened to cap visas in provinces that don’t help house students or who won’t shut down educational institutions that he argues shouldn’t be operating.
“There are, in provinces, the diploma equivalent of puppy mills that are just churning out diplomas, and this is not a legitimate student experience,” Miller said at a news conference.
“There is fraud and abuse and it needs to end.”
International students will need double the money to study in Canada, Miller says
Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced new rules that are coming for prospective international students that increase the amount of money needed to study in Canada.
Miller said the measures are meant to ensure international students aren’t vulnerable to sketchy employers and “unscrupulous” schools that leave them unable to afford life in Canada.
“Clearly, we have become a country that has been targeted for abuse and exploitation by some unsavoury actors,” he said.
Starting next year, prospective students will need to show they have access to $20,635 instead of the $10,000 requirement that has been in place for two decades, in addition to paying travel and tuition. The amount will be adjusted yearly based on a Statistics Canada benchmark for living costs.
For years, critics have argued that some colleges are providing foreigners with inadequate educations while giving them a chance to get visas to work in Canada and to eventually immigrate.
The issue has attracted close scrutiny as an uptick in international students has coincided with a housing shortage. Media outlets have reported on students scraping by in exploitative jobs.
“It would be a mistake to blame international students for the housing crisis. But it also be a mistake to invite them to come to Canada with no support, including how to put a roof over their heads,” Miller said.
“It’s why we expect learning institutions to only accept a number of (international) students that they’re able to provide for — able to house, or assist in finding off-campus housing.”
Miller said there will need to be more conversations with provinces before any visa caps are introduced.
“Enough is enough. If provinces and territories cannot do this, we will do it for them, and they will not like the bluntness of the instruments that we use,” he said.
“We could potentially miss the mark. Provinces have a number of tools at their disposal — namely the regulation of the designated learning institutions, that in some cases just need actually to be shut down.”
Changes to employment rules
The Liberals are also winding down a policy that lengthened the time graduating international students could work in Canada without an employment visa.
Miller said Ottawa is reviewing how many hours students should be allowed to work in Canada, saying that capping it to 20 hours a week would be “on the draconian end of the spectrum” but allowing 40 working hours per week would give people reason to come to Canada and not focus on their studies.
The advocacy group Migrant Students United urged Ottawa to come up with clear rules.
“Federal immigration policy is a roller-coaster,” national organizer Sarom Rho said in a statement.
“We don’t need monthly improvisations and chaotic twists that let exploitation and abuse continue. We will continue to speak up for stable, fair rules and permanent residency for all.”
Rho added that the increase in funds required to apply for a student visa, as well as recent changes to permanent-residency requirements, will leave students “scrambling.”
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a press release it is considering pilot programs for “underrepresented cohorts of international students” who are unable to study in Canada as a result of the new income requirements.
HALIFAX – The federal Fisheries Department says an endangered North Atlantic right whale has become entangled in gear in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The department says the whale was sighted Wednesday by a Transport Canada aerial surveillance team northeast of the Gaspé Peninsula, off Anticosti Island.
Officials say it’s not known what type of gear has entangled the whale or where the gear came from.
Based on observation, experts at the New England Aquarium have confirmed the whale is a female known as Chiminea.
The department says it is continuing to monitor the area and if the whale is located and conditions allow, efforts will be made to disentangle the animal.
Last October, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium estimated there were 356 North Atlantic right whales left on the planet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Canadian pop icon Nelly Furtado has been named one of three headliners for the opening ceremony of the upcoming Invictus Games.
Furtado, from Victoria, will share the stage with alt-pop star Roxane Bruneau of Delson, Que., and American singer-songwriter Noah Kahan.
They’ll be part of the show that opens the multi-sport event in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., in February.
The Invictus Games sees wounded, injured, and sick military service members and Veterans compete in 11 disciplines.
The Vancouver Whistler 2025 Games will be the first of seven editions to feature winter adaptive sports, including alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling.
British Columbia’s Lower Mainland will host the Invictus Games from Feb. 8-16.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
