Federal minister plans to hold consultations this summer on immigration intake

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OTTAWA — The federal government will use this summer’s planned consultation on immigration targets to guide future decisions about how many study visas it will issue to international students in the future, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said.

In a recent interview with University Affairs magazine, Diab said the annual immigration levels consultations will reach out to the provinces, university administrators and students themselves, as the government looks to ensure the visa system for students is “sustainable.”

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This summer’s annual immigration levels consultations come as multiple universities and colleges face budget constraints after Canada began clawing back on the number of student visas last year amid concerns the number had grown so quickly schools could not provide adequate supports, including housing.

Julie Lafortune, an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokeswoman, says the government expects schools to only accept students they can “reasonably support” by providing housing and other services.

“The annual growth in the number of international students couldn’t be sustained while ensuring students receive the support they need. Study permit applications subject to the cap require an attestation letter from a province or territory,” Lafortune said in an emailed response.

The current immigration levels plan lays out targets for admitting permanent and temporary residents through 2027, and Lafortune said the upcoming consultations will help the government decide how many newcomers will be admitted in coming years.

Post-secondary institutions across the country are posting deficit budgets this year, laying off staff and cutting programs as international student enrolment drops. Schools had become increasingly reliant on international student fees to balance their books.

Universities Canada president Gabriel Miller previously told The Canadian Press that international student tuition acted as a “stopgap” to make up for years of “inadequate” funding at the provincial and territorial level.

The government last year announced a cap on study permit applications and a gradual decrease in the number of student visas.

The number of student visas issued in Canada increased dramatically in the last decade, with 219,000 issued in 2015 and peaking at 681,000 in 2023.

In 2024 the target was 485,000 student visas and IRCC data shows that more than 516,000 were issued. This year, the target is 437,000 student visas, and more than 96,000 were issued in the first quarter of 2025.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said her party wants to see an “immediate and massive” reduction in student visas due to high youth unemployment and the housing crisis.

“The Liberals do not need more consultations to tell them what is already abundantly clear; immediate action is needed to massively reduce the number of foreign student visas,” Rempel Garner said in an emailed reply.

In May, Statistics Canada reported the unemployment rate among returning students had hit 20 per cent, a three per cent increase over the previous year.