The causes of the housing supply gap in Canada are many, and international students are among the cohort most affected by inadequate housing, or lack of access to housing. With the way the cap was designed, the federal government is allocating a number of spaces to provinces and territories, which they can then distribute to learning institutions.
There are factors that provinces can consider when making the decision about which schools should receive a certain number of spaces, like community conditions, the availability of housing and the degree to which institutions can provide housing to students. There is latitude for the provinces to consider that and make thoughtful decisions about how to distribute the spaces available under the cap.