Article content
The Association of Colleges and Universities of the Canadian Francophonie (ACUFC), representing 22 French-language post-secondary institutions outside Quebec, has filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages about the federal government’s decision to lower the number of foreign students.
On Jan. 22, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Canadian Citizenship, Marc Miller, announced the imposition of a two-year cap on foreign student admissions in order to help reduce the pressure on housing.
Article content
The number of new visas issued this year, the minister announced, will be capped at 364,000, a drop of 35 per cent compared with the nearly 560,000 issued last year.
But the ACUFC says its institutions have about 12,000 French-speaking foreign students, making up about 30 per cent of their clientele, according to September 2023 data.
The ACUFC appeared Monday evening before the Senate Committee on Official Languages, which was studying the repercussions of capping study permits on French-speaking post-secondary institutions outside Quebec.
Its director of strategic research and international relations, Martin Normand, announced that the association had filed a complaint with the commissioner.
The association argues that the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Canadian Citizenship (IRCC) has neglected to take into consideration the new commitments incumbent on federal institutions, under the modernized version of the Official Languages Act.
“IRCC did not take positive action prior to its announcement of a national cap, to avoid or mitigate its direct negative impacts” as indicated in the law, Normand said before the Senate committee.
Share this article in your social network
