Evidence of meeting #4 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was institutions.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Liberal
President, Seneca Polytechnic
It would be the same answer. The federal government tends to deal with the provincial government—
Conservative
President, Seneca Polytechnic
—as opposed to directly with institutions. I would think that would be the answer.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
I noticed that the Seneca Student Federation has a food bank. Is that correct?
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Do you have the number of food bank users of Seneca Student Federation by year over the last five years, Mr. Agnew?
President, Seneca Polytechnic
I would have to ask the federation. I certainly will provide you with that information.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you. If you could undertake to do that, it would be greatly appreciated.
Your website also notes that students must register to pick up food. Would it be possible to provide us with the number of international student visits to the food bank by year over the last five years?
President, Seneca Polytechnic
Honestly, I don't know whether the registration system would ask students to identify themselves by their country of origin, but I can certainly ask the SSF for that information.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
You said earlier in testimony that you're busting your butt to attract Canadians to Seneca, but we noticed that you're investing in two campuses in the Cairo region. You're an Ontario college, meant to be educating Ontarians. Why are you focusing on educating Egyptians?
President, Seneca Polytechnic
We're not investing in those campuses. They're being built for us by somebody else. Not one cent of our capital is going into those campuses. We're operating them. Why? As I think is apparent to everybody in Canada, we need revenue, and this is a way of raising additional revenue that we can then bring home to invest in our campuses for the benefit of our students in Canada. That's what we do.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
According to your annual report, 53% of your student body were international students. Don't you think those spots should be going to Canadian students?
President, Seneca Polytechnic
We do not turn away domestic students. We try to recruit in our programs all the time. Please understand that it's a very competitive market. We're in the GTA, where we have eight different post-secondary institutions. We have a big recruitment team. We do a lot of marketing, which you've probably seen around the city. We are trying our very best to recruit as many domestic students as we possibly can.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Mr. Agnew, as a primary educational institution in the greater Toronto area, certainly you must take into consideration—or should be taking into consideration—what happens when these international students come into the city. Are you aware that some of them are living under bridges? Are you aware that they're going to food banks? Are you aware that the youth unemployment in the greater Toronto area is hovering around 20% at this time? Do you not feel a responsibility to at least take those issues up with the IRCC when discussing things with them?
President, Seneca Polytechnic
These are all very serious issues. We do our best to do what we can for the students we have under our responsibility. We are an institution in a big city, so we can't solve the housing problems. We were planning to build a new residence to attract more students into that residence, but of course, January 24 came along, and because our student numbers are dropping now, that doesn't make economic sense.
You have to understand—and this is, I think, a pretty strong narrative across the post-secondary system—that the revenue we were raising from international students was helping our domestic students. It was cross-subsidizing programs. It was helping to keep some of those programs alive. When people talk to you about the hundreds of programs that are closing, it's because—
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Well, 53% of your revenue, Mr. Agnew, according to your annual report—
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Madam Chair, I have a point of order. The interpretation service sent a note saying that the sound isn't good enough for interpretation.
Madam Chair, our wonderful interpreters are saying that, when a microphone is turned on in the room at the same time as the witness's microphone, it becomes very difficult for them to interpret what is being said.
We know we must protect their hearing. There have been some recent incidents of acoustic shock. We don't want that to happen. The health and safety of parliamentary employees, including our fabulous interpreters, is most important to us.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you.
Thank you for clarifying that. I do note that.
Mr. Agnew, do you want to finish your sentence?
I'll allow you to finish your sentence as well, Mr. Menegakis.
Mr. Agnew, you were finishing your sentence. Go ahead, please.
President, Seneca Polytechnic
I was just saying that among the many hundreds of programs that have closed in the last year, some of them have closed because they've lost the cross-subsidization or even the bodies, the enrolment, that they needed to sustain them. That's part of the role that international students have played. It has helped domestic students.
Liberal