Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Sept. 23rd, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number three of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format.

I want to remind all participants of the following points. Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. All comments should be addressed through the chair. Members, please raise your hand if you wish to speak, whether participating in person or via Zoom. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can. I want to thank you all in advance for your co-operation.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on September 16, 2025, the committee is commencing its study of the international student program and study permits.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses for today's meeting. We have four guests from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. We have Pemi Gill, assistant deputy minister, service delivery. We have Soyoung Park, assistant deputy minister, economic programs. We have Aiesha Zafar, assistant deputy minister, migration integrity. We also have Bronwyn May, director general, international students branch.

Up to five minutes will be given for opening remarks, after which we will proceed with rounds of questions.

Ms. Gill, welcome. I now invite you to make an opening statement of up to five minutes.

I'll just pause for a second: Is there an order that you would prefer? Would you prefer us to go from Ms. May to Ms. Park to Ms. Gill to Ms. Zafar? How would you like to go?

[Soyoung Park, Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Programs, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be providing the opening remarks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Then we'll ask you to start off, Ms. Park.

Thank you.

[Soyoung Park]

Thank you very much.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

On a point of order, is it five minutes for all of them?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

It's five minutes for each one.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I don't think that's—

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

I'm sorry. It's five minutes for one.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Total.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Yes, total.

I was so excited to hear from all of you that I had thought maybe I could slip that in, but we will do five minutes as opening remarks.

Thank you, Ms. Park.

[Soyoung Park]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are meeting on the traditional unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

International students make important contributions to our communities, campuses, and economy. However, the program faced unprecedented growth during 2022 and 2023, bringing new challenges and the need for reform. That’s why the department has implemented a comprehensive set of reforms to the international student program.

To address program integrity issues, we introduced mandatory verification of acceptance letters for all student study permit applications, in order to detect and prevent fraud. This means that applications are not approved without a verified letter of acceptance from a designated learning institution. We also raised financial requirements to better reflect the cost of living in Canada, with yearly adjustments, so that students are more financially prepared to live in Canada during the period of their studies.

The volume of applications was too great, so we implemented an annual cap on study permits and introduced an allocation system with the provinces and territories. Provinces and territories allocate spaces to learning institutions based on community capacity and housing availability, among other factors.

Since 2024, when the cap was introduced, there has been a 21% reduction in study permit holders in Canada. The cap is working, because compared with the same period last year, Canada welcomed over 98,000 fewer international students, to better align with Canada's needs. Initial reports suggest that pressures on housing and local services are beginning to ease in communities with universities and colleges. We also tightened requirements for the work permit program, also called the PGWP, to bring greater focus on Canada's labour market needs, and introduced minimum language requirements.

In November 2024 we introduced additional program integrity measures. One, we set a new 24-hour weekly limit for off-campus work. Two, students who change learning institutions must apply for a new study permit so that we can better track where they are and the fact that they are studying. Lastly, we now have additional regulations to enforce compliance and reporting standards on learning institutions.

These reforms strengthen integrity and respond to the concerns of Canadians around the capacity of communities and institutions to support international students.

Through this period of change, we have worked and will continue to work closely with provinces, territories and the education sector to build a stronger and more sustainable program that will continue to welcome genuine students while preventing misuse of the program.

Thank you. I am happy to take your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you for your remarks, Ms. Park.

We're going to begin with the first round of questions.

I did notice that Mr. Paul-Hus is here, and Mr. Davies.

Welcome to both of you. Thank you for being here with us.

I believe the first questioner will be Mr. Redekopp, please, for six minutes.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

My first question is for Ms. May.

What advice did you provide the minister on study permits regarding the impact on housing, asylum claims, employment, food bank usage and things like that?

[Soyoung Park]

If I understood correctly, you want to know what advice we provided in advance of the reforms to inform—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I'm thinking that you have a new minister. Did you provide departmental advice to them regarding the impact on study permits and things like housing and asylum claims, etc.?

[Soyoung Park]

As I mentioned during my opening remarks, a lot of the reform measures were introduced in 2024, therefore we're at the stage right now where we're really starting to see some of the early results of those reforms. One of the objectives of the reforms—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I'm sorry. That's not exactly what I was looking for, but let's go in a different direction.

I do have some questions related to the department's understanding of the situation on the ground in Canada and how that impacts recommendations that are made to the minister. Regarding study permit holders and postgraduate work permit holders, what was the IRCC forecast for the number of asylum inflows attributable to study permit holders and postgraduate work permit holders?

[Soyoung Park]

In terms of the impact on asylum claims, I'm happy to report that this year alone, the overall asylum intake has actually dropped by over 30%. In that, in terms of the student numbers, there's been a corresponding decrease as well, at least until the end of July 2025.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Does the department track the number of study permit holders and postgraduate work permit holders who claim asylum?

[Soyoung Park]

We would be able to track the permit or the status they held prior to the time when they claimed asylum.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Okay. Could you table that information with the committee on the number of study permit holders or postgraduate work permit holders who claim asylum by year, let's say, for the last two years?

[Soyoung Park]

By year? Yes. I believe that information is.... I'll get you the precise data. There were actually 48% fewer asylum claims made by students in July 2025.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I'm looking for a number, though.

[Soyoung Park]

Yes. I'm giving you the number of 1,586, compared to December 2024, which was 2,640.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Okay. Of all study permits expiring in each month since January 1, 2024, what percentage of former permit holders filed asylum claims?