Thank you.
I referred in my remarks to a poll conducted in 2020, according to which 90% of the clientele wanted to stay in Canada. In that same study, international clients were asked about the types of services they had received from their postsecondary institutions. The vast majority of them fortunately said they wanted to stay in Canada because they felt they had been well received, welcomed and supported by their postsecondary institutions, but there are still deficiencies that must be addressed, with regard to cultural competencies, for example. We have to ensure that the range of services is well suited to certain cultural realities.
With regard to modes of communication—Ms. Veronis referred to this a little earlier—not everyone uses the Internet in the same way. Certain methods of communication may not be systematically available to the international clientele. In short, certain improvements should be made within our institutions.
Despite all their goodwill, there are problems associated with the public funding of postsecondary institutions. That's true at all institutions and all the more so at francophone institutions, which are disadvantaged as a result of funding formulas. All institutions have to make tough investment choices. As I said, despite all their goodwill, they don't always have the necessary resources to develop the range of services they would like to offer, including services to their international clientele.
Some types of services may cost more to develop or provide. I'm thinking, for example, of immigration consultants, who could help international students obtain permanent residence once they've graduated.That kind of service is very costly, and very few of our institutions currently offer it. Some can because they've received additional funding from their province to do that work. It's nevertheless a very costly service.
You can imagine others, but there will be limits on what they can offer as long as permanent additional funding is unavailable to postsecondary institutions.