Students from Punjab who go to study in Canada spend about Rs 68,000 crore in that country, nearly $8 billion, annually. That’s a recent estimate by Sikh Vox, a website on the Sikh diaspora. The estimate is based on the number of students studying in Canada and the average college fees plus living expenditure, etc. According to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), a total of 226,450 visas were approved for Indian students in 2022. Of these, a significant portion, approximately 1.36 lakh students, hailed from Punjab, pursuing various courses with an average duration of two-to-three years, says the report by Sikh Vox. Current estimates from student visa processing agencies suggest that around 3.4 lakh Punjabi students are currently enrolled in various educational institutions across Canada.
But if you include students from other states of India who go to Canada for post-secondary education, the number could be near $20 billion. Such a huge amount of money pouring in every year from India underlines the importance of Canada-India ties. Rising consumer demand in India not only boosts the Indian economy but is now contributing to foreign economies too.
How Indians fund Canadian education system
College fees constitute a significant part of the total annual expenditure of Indian students in Canada, and the Indian money going into the education sector in Canada has made headlines in recent times. Indian students have even left behind the government in Canada in funding of the public education system. International students from India have outpaced the government of Ontario, a province in Canada, in funding public colleges, a recent report has highlighted.
Given that tuition fee for international students is something like three times what it is for domestic students (exact data is difficult to pin down because Statistics Canada chooses not to track tuition fees at the college level), that means that something like 76% of all tuition fees in the sector come from international students, says a recent report published by Higher Education Strategy Associates, a Toronto-based consulting firm that provides research, analysis and strategic advice related to higher education.
As the above graph shows, since a majority of these international students come from India, it turns out that Indian students not only contribute twice the amount of money to the college system, on aggregate, that Canadian students do, they also contribute slightly more than does the Government of Ontario.
These numbers could be shocking for many in Canada, the report says. “Numbers like these tend to induce shock. How can it possibly be that Indian students are paying more into the system than Queen’s Park [the seat of the Assembly of Ontario]? The answer is simply this: Ontario institutions, faced with deep cuts in income, have acted precisely the way the government asked them to — that is, by acting entrepreneurially and securing new forms of revenue. This isn’t a mistake: this is exactly what the Ontario government requires.”
In short, the Ontario government doesn’t have sufficient money to fund its educational institutions and it wants them to earn more from International students, and in the above example, the students from India.
1.6 lakh Indians who gave up citizenship between 2018 and 2023 opted for Canada; second to the US
Indian students not only contribute slightly more than does the Government of Ontario but they also contribute twice the amount of money to the college system, on aggregate, that Canadian students do, said the report.
A government analysis from March 2022, which mapped the period when Covid had disrupted International students’ enrolment in Canadian colleges, showed that International students contribute over $22.3 billion per year to the Canadian economy – greater than exports of auto parts, lumber or aircraft.
Why do Canadian colleges need more international students?
Since about 2000, the number of international students at the post-secondary level in Canada has risen dramatically, from just under 40,000 in the late 1990s to almost 420,000 in 2020-21, says the report by Higher Education Strategy Associates. This rise was gradual at first, then very rapid from 2009 onwards.
The report cites several reasons for this growth: international students bring diversity to classrooms across the country and (marginally) because their presence burnishes institutions’ standings in world rankings, which regard the presence of international students as an indicator of quality. However, the main reason is that international students pay much higher tuition fees than domestic students and are thus seen as a way to offset stagnant government funding. In 2021-22, international students made up 17.6% of all university enrolments and 22% of all college enrolments. Growth has been most rapid in Ontario’s college sector, where international student numbers roughly doubled between 2016-17 and 2019-20.
At the university level, international students are a bigger part of the student body in the Atlantic provinces than they are elsewhere; at the college level, it is the reverse, with international enrolments lower in the five eastern provinces but hugely important west of there, especially in Ontario, which accounts for about 70% of all international college students in Canada.
Rising consumer demand in India fuels rush to Canada
Better career opportunities and permanent residency that follows foreign education, especially in Canada, attract Indian students. But the recent rise in numbers of such students can be attributed to rising consumer demand and higher incomes in India as well as more awareness about foreign destinations due to social media.
Indian students opting for higher education abroad are rapidly increasing and their growth outpaced domestic student growth by more than six times in the previous three years to reach around 7,70,000, said a report by consulting firm RedSeer in 2019. The report estimated that the number was expected to grow to 1.8 million by 2024. Covid had disrupted the trend but it’s now coming back on track.
The significant increase in outflow of students over the recent years is driven by better educational quality and outcomes abroad; higher standards of living ; gaps in the Indian education system leading to supply-demand imbalance and upward income mobility of Indian households, said the report.
There has been a massive increase in incomes in India over the past two decades that has translated into growing spends on post-secondary education. Additionally, people are becoming more aware of the benefits of studying abroad and Indians have a rising diaspora in popular destination countries which is leading to more applications abroad and student outflows.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
