Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Sept. 25th, 2025

[David Agnew]

Prior to it appearing in the media, that's exactly right. Once it appeared in the media, we started talking.

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

There's a lot of financial liability associated with international students who are making false asylum claims or overstaying their visas. Do you think institutions like yours should bear some responsibility or financial liability when that happens?

[David Agnew]

I would just remind you that we don't actually approve the permits. We assess our incoming students on the basis of their academic records and their transcripts.

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

You sure profit off them, though. Isn't that right?

[David Agnew]

I don't use the word “profit”, because we're a public institution.

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

I would.

[David Agnew]

Any surplus that we earn goes back into our institution for the good of our students. That's what happens to our surplus.

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

It's interesting that you raise that, because I note that you're number 202 on the Ontario sunshine list. You make over $450,000 a year. You're telling me that you never talked to the federal government about adequate housing for students in your area, that you never talked to them about potential asylum claims, which is a big cost to taxpayers, and that you never talked to them about youth unemployment rates. Do you think you deserve your salary?

[David Agnew]

We did talk about the asylum claims with IRCC once we were made aware through the media that we had a problem. As I said in my remarks, I very much wanted to sit down with the federal government to understand why this was happening.

I mean, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the rate of asylum claims has plummeted this year. The bad news is that I have no idea why it went down, just as I had no idea why it went up.

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

I don't know; maybe somebody on your board would have told you that if you brought fewer people in, they might make fewer asylum claims. Do you think that might be an obvious factor?

[David Agnew]

The numbers don't track just like you would say, actually. That's not exactly the way the numbers track.

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

But how would you know?

[David Agnew]

Historically, the numbers are out. I mean—

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

Okay. I'm going to move on to another topic here.

Earlier in testimony, one of my Liberal colleagues said that he was concerned about corrosive rhetoric and foreign students being scapegoated for things like the youth jobs crisis and high rental costs. I agree. I don't think foreign students should bear the brunt of that.

Who deserves the blame, you or the federal government?

[David Agnew]

When I look around my campus and reflect back on the years I've spent at Seneca, international students have been disproportionately the leaders of our student government. They've been representatives on our board of governors. They've contributed immensely.

I agree with you. I don't think we should be scapegoating international students either. As I said before—

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

I need to have the mic back now.

Do you think you bear any responsibility? You brought in 50,000 students. There were asylum claims, food bank overuse and high rental rates. Do you bear any responsibility for that decision?

[David Agnew]

We are a single institution. Our growth in international students was, I believe, responsible and responsive to the times. As I said, any surplus we generated during that time was invested back into our students.

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

I'll close with this. Every person on this panel today has said that they need more global talent to make Canada competitive. What about Canadian kids? What are you doing to make Canadian kids better? I have not heard a single academic institution today talk about how they are skilling kids in a youth jobs crisis. What are you doing about that?

[David Agnew]

We are busting our butt to recruit Canadian kids. We have great programs. We are trying as much as possible to direct them toward the STEM programs that the government says we need and that I agree we do need.

We're doing a lot to try to upskill and re-skill our Canadian kids and our Canadian workforce—not just the kids.

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

Do better.

[David Agnew]

Well, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dzerowicz]

Thank you, Mr. Agnew.

Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.

Now we go to Ms. Salma Zahid for six minutes.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thanks a lot to all our witnesses.

My first few questions are for Mr. Asselin, who is representing U15 Canada.

Mr. Asselin, U15 institutions operate across this country. From your perspective, how does the growth of international student involvement in Ontario compare with the other provinces? What risk has that posed for the reputation of Canada's international student program as a whole?

[Robert Asselin]

Thank you for the question.

I can only speak for my own institutions, the U15 institutions. As I said in my remarks, the business model of our institutions doesn't depend on international student inflows. Our numbers have been steady at around 18% to 20% since 2018.

I will also put on the table that what we provide, essentially, are pathways to academic excellence. Our institutions have the highest standards of academic excellence, and we're very proud of it.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON]

Do you agree that federal concerns about Ontario's unchecked enrolment growth were legitimate, given that provinces like Quebec and British Columbia have taken stronger measures to regulate the designated learning institutions?