Canada can do with the fees that international students provide, but it does not have the number of jobs to share between permanent and temporary residents. Every International student does not need to be given a work permit. This is the first condition that Canada needs to apply for international students before it lifts the federal cap on international students. Once it does this the country will immediately exclude the scammers that scammed the system of education to get the right to work in Canada through the back door.

Secondly there was no housing crisis due to international students. An in-depth analysis of why rents have risen and real estate has become more expensive after the COVID wave is needed to find out what was the real reason, was it refugees or fake refugees or the stimulus package or the just the economy stupid?

Thirdly is Canada out of the mess it was in or has it created a bigger mess for itself through a series of knee jerk reactions that have led to a Condo market crash, large scale job losses in the academic sector and loss of demand for goods and services all round?

Who actually gave international students a bad name in Canada? Was it students of Indian origin? Unfortunately, yes. For one thing most of those who wanted to scam the Canadian system came for cheap and short-term courses where they could extend the course by simply deferring their exams. Why would they do this? They did this not to be better prepared for their exams but to extend their work permits. Some Indian students did not even land up at the colleges they had sought admissions in to study they merely went ahead and started working. Result was they grabbed the jobs the children of locals normally picked up for themselves. The locals began to resent this.

Then came videos of Indians – 20 boys living in basements in some houses in Brampton – which the Canadian authorities believed was a housing crisis. This was however a Indian problem as Indians do this in Dubai, in UAE, in Europe, in London in England and so on. Because they do not mind sharing rooms, taking turn to share the bed using the shift system in their favour and saving money on rent to send back home to their family. Canadians assumed they were doing this because they had no place to stay. Another wrong assumption.

Then came unemployment due to international students grabbing all the jobs in grocery stores, in coffee shops and so on which hit the locals most. Most of these students were those doing the cheap short-term courses in colleges.

So, the government of Canada took two decisions. One it banned the sale of property to those who were not Canadian nationals of PRs. Foreign investors who were riding high on the purchase of property in Canada fled and prices of property crashed overnight by up to 60 percent.

Then it put a cap on international student admissions in Canada. Which led to a shortfall of admissions up to 60 per cent in Canada, jobs being cut in colleges and some colleges even closing down.

In both decisions one thing happened. It was the Canadians who were hit hardest not the students, not the foreign investors. What needed to be done, investigation of the impact the refugees and the fake refugees were having on the system, was never done and is still under process. Local politicians however talk about increasing taxes on the local residents to fund care for the refugees.

What should have been done or what should be done today is this. The ban on foreigners buying property should be lifted so that foreigners can invest in areas where Canada needs foreign investment and there should be a ban on them buying property in areas where the government feels that their presence will damage the local residents.

All students – especially those who take up cheap short-term courses – should not be given work permits. Because then there will be no incentive to scam the system. Only students who come for very expensive long-term courses should get work permits. The system should also fast track and give priority to those who come to acquire skills that Canada needs, give them fast track PR and incentives to take up work in those fields.

Throwing out the baby with the bath water is not a good idea. Mark Carney now needs to steer Canada out of this mess. Canada has several unutilized resources, like oil and gas and rare minerals and earths. Just as it needs to exploit those to grow and grow rapidly in the face of US Tarrifs it needs to make money out of a huge national resource and infrastructure base created to provide quality education to students from all over the world.

This infrastructure provides jobs to thousands of Canadians who work and teach in these institutions, a lot of fees coming from international students is needed to fund this infrastructure and keep it sailing smoothly but decisions taken by the previous liberal government and the existing Federal cap on students has shaken its foundations. An immediate review based on the principle of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater needs to be done to remedy the situation.

Most colleges have increased or are in the process of increasing housing for students, all this is being done to comply with government rules and regulations. This comes at a great cost to investors who are Canadian because foreign investment in property is ruled out right now. Most colleges will have to ask people to leave, in fact some courses have been shut down and some teachers and ground staff laid off. So while the departure of foreign students may create jobs in Walmart and Tim Hortons it will deprive others of their jobs. Others who run families and pay taxes.

Courses in the medical field which are mostly reserved for PRs and Citizens should also be thrown open for deserving foreign students and priced expensive as there are many who are willing to pay for quality education in Canada. The sooner the Canadian government wakes up to these realities is better. Till then it should increase its revenue from the sale of oil and see how a small nation like Brunei can create and support the education infrastructure with it.