Ottawa considering cap on international students to ease housing pressure, says housing minister

The question of housing has been plaguing the government and one solution up for discussion is Raising some eyebrows that is the idea of putting a cap on the number of international students the federal housing Minister says this is one of the options the government needs to consider

Sean Fraser is the Minister of Housing infrastructure and communities hello minister hey it’s good to be with you glad to have you listen uh you certainly attracted some attention when you raised the prospect of putting a cap on International students coming to Canada as a way of easing pressure on the

Housing market you also though seem to suggest that maybe that was a premature conversation a lot of people are going to be watching that conversation closely what kind of timelines are we talking about here in terms of making that decision uh well look I I should be clear that

The decision on managing the international student program will rest with my colleague Mr Miller but I think it’s important that we’re able to speak openly about the different challenges the communities are facing now the international student program makes extraordinary economic and social contributions to Canada it contributes

Tens of billions of dollars to our GDP annually about what we’ve seen recently is there’s been such rapid growth given that the program is typically uncapped that certain communities are having difficulties managing with the population growth that it’s attracted of course we still believe in the international student program but we

Want to work with institutions in the communities where they exist to make sure it’s being managed appropriately it’s not fair for the students who come to be exploited and left without adequate housing there are some institutions some private colleges that are not necessarily good actors but I’m

Convinced to have become come to exist for the purpose of exploiting financially those International students who come to Canada so we want to work with communities and work with institutions the same way we do on our permanent residency programs to make sure that we are growing the housing

Supply and equipping communities to deal with a growing population that’s just good governance okay you talk about how to make all of the pieces work here one of the people that cabinet heard from today was Professor Mike Moffett he has argued that colleges and universities should be given funding to build student

Housing and if they don’t that they should lose the ability to bring in international students would you go that far uh look there’s different solutions that different people are are pitching to help address this challenge but I don’t think anyone disagrees that we need to make sure that we’re better aligning our

Housing our health care our industrial policy with our immigration policy uh Professor moffatt has made the suggestion as you’ve indicated others have called for a cap others still have argued that we should work with institutions to ensure that they’re making the necessary Investments not just in housing but to better support

Students in their studies and in their integration into the community as a quasi-settlement service provider there’s a number of different options that I think it’s smart for us to consider but at this stage as we seek to address unique challenges with rapid population growth in centers that hold post-secondary institutions we ought to

Consider all of the different options before we make a decision I think it’s important that we canvas the different suggestions that are being made by people who’ve been studying this including Professor moffatt so what I hear from that as you give me a list of options and talk about canvassing is

That you know this is not something that’s about to happen say in time for next semester you talk about Trends though more broadly in terms of what’s happening with International students and of course you were immigration Minister now as I understand it the number of international students doubled

Between 2015 and the end of last year roughly doubled you you were the immigration Minister during some of that time so do you not bear some responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in if the growth has been too exponential so one of the things that we should be

Really clear about is the international student program including large numbers through the program is a very good thing for Canada but we just need to do it in a more organized way what we saw over the last couple of years in particular is that the program which is designed

Not this is not a bug but a feature it’s driven by the demand that institutions realize that they they have for people who want to study from abroad in Canada we have seen not just public institutions that are long users of the program ramp up their numbers what we’ve

Seen that I’m far more concerned with is an explosion of private colleges who are not necessarily subject to the level of oversight and keep in mind there’s mixed Federal and provincial jurisdiction here because provinces actually identify the institutions that have access to the international student program today

We’ve seen an explosion in the number of Institutions who are actually taking students and rapidly growing far faster than they’re able to accommodate on that yeah why didn’t you do anything about it before I mean given that we’ve now reached this point it’s not a brand new problem as you say

Yeah look there’s things that we had been working towards with institutions during the uh end of my time as the minister of immigration but keep in mind the rapid growth that we saw even in the last year when we saw a number of students moving into certain communities

Really drove home the need to address the challenges impacting people in geographically concentrated Pockets across the country although the trend has been to increase over time I think that’s a good thing it’s the rapid explosion including with institutions who don’t have a history of treating students very well that has me primarily

Concerned and drives home for me the fact that we need to address the challenges that are putting pressures on those unique communities that host in some instances multiple post-secondary institutions here polyev seems to be accusing you essentially of hypocrisy he tweeted that you’re blaming International students for housing costs

When you were the one in charge of the program what do you say to that uh look I I think it’s really disappointing that anyone would try to be suggesting that one party or another is blaming newcomers I’d go so far as to suggest I’ve been the immigration

Minister who’s welcome more not just students but newcomers more broadly into Canada I was responsible for increasing the number of hours that International students could work so they could help contribute a solution to the labor shortage at the time and better equip themselves to have what they need to

Take care of themselves in their Community I remain an enormous supporter of the international student program and I don’t think it should be a negative thing that people are willing to talk openly about different challenges the communities are facing and trying to identify the right Solutions I’m going

To continue to support the international student program my hope is that there’s not a partisan argument that one side or another is trying to place a place blame on newcomers that feels very uncanadian to me okay I want to stay focused on other parts of the housing discussion

Here I’m hoping we can hit a few more points before we let you go the Prime Minister said that housing is not primarily a federal responsibility you know there’s been a lot of back and forth about that some criticism do you think that politically voters are holding your government primarily

Responsible for the situation we find ourselves in right now uh so first of all I’d invite anybody who’s heard that quote to listen to the second half of the sentence where he did say we can and we must help address the housing challenges that Canada is facing

Uh but when I talk to people across Canada including in my own Community uh what they want from us right now is not to point the finger at who else might be better equipped to solve the problem they want leadership I’m very happy to have the opportunity to step into this

Leadership role to actually lead the charge to help build get more homes built in this country the reality is when somebody sits down and expresses to you the real anxiety that they’re living with that their families are experiencing they want you to drive solutions some of that will be direct

Changes to federal policy that we may need to examine but other areas will require us to incentivize change at different levels of government with the provinces with municipalities and we’re not taking any tool off the deck Mike Moffat has said we can shift in industrial policy in Canada is

Your government ready for something like that uh absolutely because we recognize that housing is putting a very real strain on Canadian families regardless of their Dynamic whether it’s seniors who are looking to downsize students who are living an hour away from campus households sometimes with two people

Working who still can’t afford a place in the community that they call home and we want to have an all hands on deck moment oh sorry no I’m going to just jump in there Minister because there’s two options I want to talk about before we our time with you is up here Ontario

Has just put 1.2 billion dollars over three years on the table to incentivize municipalities to build basically you build enough you get access to this money is that the kind of thing that your government wants provinces and territories to do that’s one of the kinds of things but it

Is by no means limited to just putting money on the table money is part of the solution but we have to drive systemic reform because money is not the only obstacle look at some of the changes that were inspiring with the housing accelerator fund that’s inviting communities to identify local Solutions

The way that they Zone neighborhoods the way that they issue permits sometimes it’s a matter of putting the right infrastructure in place there’s all kinds of different programs that can be solved not just with money but by driving changes to the rules that exist today that will incentivize more private

Development in our communities and get more homes built we’re going to look across a broad range of solutions and implement the most effective ones as quickly as possible Montreal tried to incentivize the building of affordable housing sing right by saying that developers that they’re they essentially

Would have to pay if they didn’t build 20 social affordable housing two years later zero affordable housing what lesson do you take from that uh look that you have to work with partners and you can’t necessarily uh wash your hands of an issue after you make a policy announcement one of the

Things that I’ve learned over my eight years as a member of Parliament and in particular my last couple of years serving as a federal cabinet minister is that you have to drive change right until you cross the finish line we’re going to have a series of different

Programs that we get off the ground some have launched recently others will come in the next number of months but the reality is it’s not enough for me to make an announcement and walk away from a problem I want to continue to engage at a provincial level at a community

Level to drive solutions that actually work for communities if we succeed here the opportunity for Canada is enormous if we can unlock the economic potential of communities by allowing the workers who want to come and fill gaps in the economy to live in those communities Canada’s position as well as any country

In the world to have a full recovery from the covid-19 pandemic put more people to work and increase our overall wealth to fund the services the Canadians depend upon I’m happy to be able to play a leadership role here are looking forward to the challenge appreciate your time today Minister I

Know we’re going to be talking about this again thanks for speaking to us I’m sure I’ll look forward to it thank you so much

The federal government is considering a cap on the number of international students to ease the pressure on Canada’s housing market, said Housing Minister Sean Fraser.

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