Evidence of meeting #7 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 universities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
My question was, have they asked you to do it?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
No, we have not received a request.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Again, if we needed that information, the process would be to ask you, through the committee, to do that. I think that would be very helpful, Madam Chair.
Has the federal government asked you to complete any analysis of the cost to Canada's social infrastructure services that these excessive numbers of international students have caused?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
No. I would say that because there are 360,000 people who work for the federal government and there are 36 of us, as part of that group of 360,000, they have robust policy capacity in place, so typically they do their own work.
I think that's why they don't ask us.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
You, as the PBO, which is an independent resource and a very valuable department, have not been asked to provide that.
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
No.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Again, that's something we might be asking you for, with the committee's approval.
Has the federal government asked you to complete an analysis of the number of housing units that are required to properly house the large number of international students that the federal government allowed into the country?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
No.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
They have not. Again, that's something that would be very useful to us. One would think it would be something that should be taken into consideration by a government before making its policies.
Has the federal government asked you to complete any estimate on how housing costs have increased, particularly in areas that house universities and colleges? We heard testimony earlier, before you were here, from previous witnesses where the housing costs have gone up considerably.
Have you been asked by the government to do an analysis of the impact on housing costs with respect to the large number of international students the government has let in?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
No.
May I offer a recommendation?
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Our starting point would be to have the committee actually issue a request to the relevant government departments to compel them to share any such studies that you've just referenced over the past couple of minutes with the committee. Certainly, on our end, that would be the starting point: send an information request to the relevant government departments and see what work has already been done before you have people in our office replicate the work of the 360,000 highly qualified federal public servants.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
I understand that. Thank you.
We've had testimony here from officials and that information was not available to us, so that's why I thought I would ask you. We will go through the right channels to make sure the request goes through properly.
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Again, I'm not trying to create any barriers whatsoever.
Conservative
Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
We're here to support you. Our objective is to make sure you receive the information as quickly as possible. We just want to cut through as much bureaucracy as possible.
If the government's already done the work, then the committee has more power than an agent of Parliament. The departments are compelled to furnish you with the information that is currently sitting within the government department.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
That's very clear. Thank you, Mr. Jacques.
My next question is for Ms. Brunner.
Thank you for your testimony today as well.
Ms. Brunner, you have said there is a mounting tension from what you called “immigration politics” and that international students are being scapegoated to deflect attention from structural issues. That's a very powerful statement.
Do you believe this Liberal government is scapegoating the excessive number of international students that their policies let into Canada to cover their own failings in housing, health care and jobs?
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of British Columbia, Centre for Migration Studies, As an Individual
That is a good question.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of British Columbia, Centre for Migration Studies, As an Individual
It seems that the current government has taken a different approach than the previous government.
Conservative
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
Thank you, Chair.
My question, again, will be for Dr. Brunner.
In light of the reports of exploitative practices in some of the post-secondary institutions, what policy reforms do you advocate to prevent universities and colleges from treating international students primarily as revenue sources?
How can federal oversight enforce ethical internationalization, as outlined in your publications on education and migration systems, particularly given the primary provincial constitutional authority for education?
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of British Columbia, Centre for Migration Studies, As an Individual
It's a great question.
In the report I'm sharing with the committee, I make some specific recommendations that could be considered by the committee. One is to potentially limit international student enrolment primarily to accredited public institutions and rigorously regulate recruitment practices.
In the short term, we have to think about the fact that there are a substantial number of international students and post-graduation work permit holders who came to Canada and were told that permanent residency was a reasonable expectation, and the policies have changed.
One suggestion I have to reduce the potential precarity and challenges for that population is to prioritize temporary residents already in Canada for permanent residence over the next few years, which would increase the proportion of the overall permanent resident admissions. I know it was originally approximately 40% in the levels plan, and I think it's been about 50% so far. It could be higher, and that would also contribute to the goal of reducing the overall proportion of temporary residents in Canada's population to 5%.
Yes, in general, having more public-facing reporting done with metrics that are agreed upon in consultation would be good, because the institutions know the kinds of challenges that other institutions have had. There's a lot of information that the post-secondary sector can contribute to work with the government, at both federal and provincial levels, to try to improve the situation and move forward in a positive way.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
How can Canada adopt a more balanced approach to international student migration based on one that weighs human capital gains against risks like labour market saturation and cultural integration strains without undermining the sector's contribution to innovation and diversity?
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of British Columbia, Centre for Migration Studies, As an Individual
You mentioned innovation and diversity in particular. As I mentioned in my remarks, international students are such a diverse group of people, with many different motivations. In particular, international students make up a disproportionate number of our Ph.D. students across Canada, and yet, compared to comparator countries, Canada has a smaller proportion of those Ph.D. students.
I think there's an opening for Canada to really focus on recruiting for research-based master's programs and Ph.D. students, in particular, if you're looking to improve innovation. Those populations tend to be economically diverse in terms of their backgrounds as well.
