COLLINS: Sometimes when you try to fix one problem, you create a whole lot more
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WE NEED MORE HOUSING, so let’s cut down on immigrants. Better still, let’s reduce the number of international students. That will create more housing space. So that is what the government did, with no thought about any wider ramifications. They just didn’t think anything through.
There are no indications that we will create some huge increase in the number of new housing spaces. That’s because the problem of housing is far bigger than a few international students. Maybe the government was looking for an easy photo op to show the public they were making an effort to address the problem.
So if the student cap was only partly successful, what did it accomplish? Sadly, no significant impact on the availability of housing but a huge increase in the cost of operation of Canada’s university system. Such an impact that almost every post-secondary institution in the country has had to make serious budget cuts to stay afloat. Even our major schools have had to cut staff, which obviously cuts the number of students who can enter certain programs. In some cases, whole programs have had to be cut, and there are even rumours that some small, specialized schools are contemplating closing entirely.
Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Carney, this is where your lack of foresight has led us. You’ve done little to improve the housing situation, but you’ve created major gaps in our education system, meaning it could take students longer to get a degree and longer to get into programs. With the elimination of the higher fees from the international students, layoffs underway will certainly cost domestic students more, and there can be no question thousands and thousands of layoffs will have a significant impact on the economy as a whole.
