Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I may, I would like to add to that answer. I completely agree with Ms. Bezo. Canada receives a lot of applications; in fact, the number is increasing. So does IRCC have the resources they need or are the immigration officers overwhelmed and therefore straying from their mandate?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Finally, there is also the issue of training. We have to make sure that the officers understand where these students are and what type of system they are in. This is to avoid the pitfalls that we have seen in francophone Africa, but also in Bangladesh, in Pakistan and in other countries.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will answer first. For us, the issue is the upper limit. I wouldn't say that the motivation is slipping away, because the number of international students at our institutions is increasing. However, we are levelling off. CEGEPs are not growing fast enough to meet the demand or to allow them to build on the quality of the education they offer.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is our assumption, yes. On the one hand, it's because our higher education system is different. On the other hand—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for asking that question again. I'll answer it quickly. First of all, I feel we need a fairly rigorous analysis of the mechanisms IRCC has to ensure procedural fairness. That should be built into the immigration system. But, when we look at the refusal rates, we do not see it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me react to that question. Yes, it is a valid question: is there discrimination based on country of origin, language or even the level of education sought? We see it in the statistics for CEGEPs: they have the highest refusal rates of all levels of education, especially for students from French-speaking countries, Western Europe excluded.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, for us, refusing permits on the grounds of dual intent makes absolutely no sense in several respects. First, it just looks like a pretty easy way to reject candidates. Second, we have a whole range of incentives for them to stay here after they graduate. In fact, right from the start, their ability to come to Canada temporarily is reviewed as if they were coming permanently.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We need to look at that a little more. The solution is not actually one-dimensional, in our view. It's not a matter of doing one program or making adjustments. After an analysis by the stakeholders, especially IRCC and the educational institutions, we need to establish how best to increase approval rates in this regard.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I would like to give a quick answer. Canada really is losing its leadership in attracting international students. You just have to look at some of the things that are happening in terms of student recruitment, such as the diversification of countries of origin or the refusal rates for applications from French-speaking Africa.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In short, the consequences are in the teaching: program options decrease and courses are in jeopardy, especially outside the major centres. In addition, from a cultural perspective, we are not able to diversify where the international students on our campuses come from.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for asking me the question and thereby giving me the opportunity to tell you about what international students have to go through, which is sometimes described as an obstacle course. I will use a student from Cameroon as an example. Let's call her Amina. She is about to graduate from high school.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Very quickly, I would say that the consequence for Canada's reputation is the lack of trust that is created. Our strategy then has to be to re‑establish our reputation, rather than to attract the attention of more international students in the countries we are talking about. CEGEPs are questioning their participation in the Canadian government's initiatives to attract international students because the results are not there.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question. In fact, it would be important not to gloss over the real reasons behind the high rejection rates. Talking about the financial capabilities of applicants, whether it's $10,000 or $13,000, is unfortunately not part of the battle to be fought, in my opinion.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Your question is interesting. Based on the statistics obtained, we note that refusal rates are less related to the language of the individual than to the language of use in their country of origin. As to whether this causes additional delays, the question would have to be put directly to the IRCC.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, there is competition internally, in Canada, among colleges and universities for undergraduates, depending on the profile of the student and what they are looking for, of course, because you also have to adapt to the individual. Secondly, with regard to international competition, France has far greater means than Canada, because it invests much more than Canada in international promotion.