Sault College president David Orazietti continues to voice his concern over a January decision by the federal government to impose a two-year cap on international student study permits.
While Orazietti is in favour of paced, responsible growth in the number of international students at Sault College, he is concerned that Ottawa’s move means students at TriOS College, Sault College’s public-private partnership college in Toronto, will not be eligible for a post-graduate work permit (though students at the Sault campus will).
That applies to all institutions with public-private partnership colleges.
Sault College has approximately 2,300 students enrolled at its main Northern Avenue campus, including approximately 1,000 international students.
TriOS College, Sault College’s public-private partnership college in Toronto, has approximately 2,800 international students.
Revenue from TriOS international students amounts to $40 million for Sault College, approximately one-third of the post secondary institution’s $125 million budget.
Denial of post-graduate work permits for TriOS College students would mean a dramatic decrease in enrollment at that college and a serious impact on Sault College in terms of revenue — and perhaps staffing levels.
“Lobbying efforts for the last month have been fairly intense around the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada decision,” Orazietti told the Sault College board of governors at its regular monthly meeting held Thursday.
Ottawa’s two-year cap means that international student study permits will be cut by 35 per cent in most of Canada but by 50 per cent in Ontario.
The federal government said its January cap announcement is aimed at protecting international students from "bad actors" — institutions that exploit international students with a poor education — along with ensuring Canada’s housing crisis for international students and the country’s broader population is addressed.
“It’s significant and it’s very impactful, especially to our partner college that will no longer be eligible to have students that graduate from that campus receive a post-graduate work permit and that’s true for about 60,000 international students that are studying on campuses that are in partnership with public colleges,” Orazietti said.
Orazietti questioned the fairness of the federal government’s new policy in that students graduating from private, foreign-owned universities such as Niagara University in Ontario and Northeastern University Toronto Campus will be issued post-graduate work permits.
“Do we need more Masters of Arts graduates in Canada as compared to healthcare workers or skilled trades workers? Post-graduate work permit exemptions for anyone going into the skilled trades or healthcare areas is certainly something I’ve suggested to the federal government and to the province.”
At the provincial government level, an Ontario Blue-Ribbon Panel delivered a government-commissioned report in November 2023 urging the Ford government to end its post-secondary tuition freeze and increase per-student funding to its universities and colleges.
The Progressive Conservative government introduced a 10 per cent tuition cut in 2019 and did away with the former Liberal government's free tuition program for low-and middle-income students.
That freeze forced post-secondary institutions to increase their dependence on much higher international student tuition fees.
The Blue-Ribbon Panel report stated that ending the tuition freeze and boosting per-student funding would help colleges and universities.
“I would suspect that we are close to hearing something from the province on responding to the recommendations that have been made by the panel and it probably will come in the context of the provincial budget from a timing perspective,” Orazietti said.
At City Council’s Jan. 29 meeting, Orazietti and Sault College gained municipal leadership’s support for a resolution to be sent to the federal government regarding work permits for TriOS College graduates and a second resolution to the province to support the recommendations of the Blue-Ribbon Panel.
After Thursday’s board meeting Orazieti told reporters that Sault College’s recruitment efforts are showing an increased number of applications in a number of areas from domestic students.
Orazietti did not comment on the impact that a drop in international student enrollment would have on Sault College in terms of revenue and possible job cuts.
“I am not going to speculate publicly on where this may land. It’s premature at this point to be speaking publicly about any scenarios. There’s a provincial budget yet to come. There is commentary from the province on the Blue-Ribbon Panel. There is much to be considered at this point before we have any certainty around our budget and what the impacts may be.”
However, in his January address to City Council Orazietti said “it would be inappropriate for me to suggest it would be business as usual without that much of our budget being impacted.”
Orazietti said the college is still hopeful about plans for a new student residence building near its Northern Avenue campus.
“At this point we are looking at all options around financing models that would allow us to continue to move that project forward and I’m optimistic that we will be able to continue with that project.”
Orazietti announced plans for a new residence building for domestic and international students in Sept. 2023, four months before the federal government’s international student cap.
“It is so fundamental to our ability to be sustainable. We simply must have increased housing for our students,” Orazietti said.
Orazietti told reporters there is little more to do in terms of next steps regarding Ottawas’s new international student policy.
“The conversations are ongoing. I’m continuing the conversations with the province and the federal government but there has not been any change in the policy as it was originally proposed. There are a number of inconsistencies in the policy which I believe need to be reconsidered.”
“We’ve spoken to everyone that we can speak to about this issue. It’s unclear at this point whether or not there will be any course correction on the policy as it currently stands,” Orazietti said.
Orazietti said he has spoken with Sault MP Terry Sheehan and Sault MPP Ross Romano about Sault College’s current international student challenges after Ottawa’s January policy shift.
“It’s going to be up to the colleges and universities to demonstrate to the Ford government that they have excellent programming and that students are looked after and I am confident that Sault College and Algoma University will be able to demonstrate that,” MP Sheehan told SooToday in January.
“They're aware of the matter and they are engaged,” Orazietti said of Sheehan and Romano.
There was no mention at Thursday's meeting about the recent war of words that erupted between Orazietti and Conestoga College president John Tibbits, which made national headlines earlier this month.
Orazietti was a recent guest on Village Media's Inside the Village podcast, where he discussed the implications of the federal changes regarding international students. You can watch the full episode HERE.