Mr. Speaker, insofar as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, is concerned, immigration is a shared jurisdiction while education is the responsibility of the provinces and territories. With respect to the implementation of the intake cap on study permit applications, IRCC has allocated study permit application spaces under the cap to provinces and territories, which are in turn responsible for distributing them among designated learning institutions in their jurisdiction.
Provincial or territorial attestation letters are issued by provinces and territories, and confirm that a study permit applicant has a space within the allocation for that jurisdiction. Therefore, provinces and territories retain control over how the distribution of international students aligns with their respective immigration goals and other regional objectives. More detailed information on how a province or territory has distributed its allocation can best be obtained by contacting a provincial or territorial government.
IRCC has not placed additional conditions on how provinces and territories choose to distribute their allocations, including the extent to which spaces may be allocated according to the Classification of Instructional Programs.
Further information on the 2025 allocations can be found by referring to the notice published on January 24, 2025, titled “2025 provincial and territorial allocations under the international student cap.”