Housing Minister Sean Fraser says potential changes could be made to both the international student visa and temporary foreign workers programs amid record-high immigration and a housing crunch.
His comments come as the government is dusting off a Second World War-era housing plan to ignite the pace of home construction in Canada, and after Immigration Minister Marc Miller last week threatened that he will look at “significantly limiting visas” for international students before next fall if provinces and post-secondary institutions fail to act.
“We do need to continue to look at reforms to our temporary residency programs,” Fraser told Global News in an exclusive interview.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in the numbers of the international student program and the temporary foreign worker program in recent years.”
From July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023, nearly 1.2 million people were admitted to Canada under both the permanent and temporary immigration programs, according to Statistics Canada.
Miller has indicated 900,000 international students could be admitted to Canada this school year, but last week raised the threshold for how much money international students need to prove they have in order to study here.
Currently, international students are allowed to study at post-secondary institutions based on demand and the number of foreign students enrolled has not been limited.
Miller said last week that “enough is enough.”
“It would be a mistake to blame international students for the housing crisis. But it also be a mistake to invite them to come to Canada with no support, including how to put a roof over their heads,” he said. “That’s why we expect learning institutions to only accept numbers of students that they’re able to provide for, able to house or assist in finding off campus housing.
“If provinces and territories cannot do this, we will do it for them and they will not like the bluntness of the instruments that we use.”
In August at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, Fraser mused that cabinet “ought to consider” implementing a cap on foreign student visas to help decrease demand for housing in communities with post-secondary institutions.
Fraser would not go as far during his interview with Global News, instead saying the government would focus on working with post-secondary institutions and provinces to ensure more housing was built, “before we need to go down the path of considering a cap.”
Miller told Global News in October that a cap would be like “surgery with a hammer” but reserved the right to use one if talks with provinces on tackling the issue yield no change.
Multiple housing experts, including a senior official at Fraser’s own federal housing agency, have said that the Liberals’ immigration policy has driven up both house prices and rent.
“We’re not keeping up with growth in the population,” said Bob Dugan, the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation chief economist.
At current building levels, the CMHC predicts Canada will be short 3.5 million homes, in addition to what’s currently being built, to restore housing affordability by 2030.
“If we don’t double the pace of housing starts between now and 2030, we are going to continue to see an erosion of affordability with rents and house prices moving higher,” Dugan said.
BMO chief economist Doug Porter has studied the impacts of immigration on house prices for years and believes “there is a very strong link over time between population growth and real home prices.”
“This is not blaming anyone. It’s just a reality that when we look at a relatively tight supply situation and very heavy demand,” Porter told Global News. “I wish we all had this conversation two years ago, before housing affordability got so stretched.”
It’s a conversation that has now made its way to the Bank of Canada.
Deputy governor Toni Gravelle told the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce last week that while immigration has helped grow the economy, expand the workforce and counteract an aging population, it has also added to housing demand.
“This jump in demographic demand coupled with the existing structural supply issues could explain why rent inflation continues to climb in Canada. It also helps explain, in part, why housing prices have not fallen as much as we had expected,” Gravelle said.
— with files from The Canadian Press.
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