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CBC
13-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Why the federal cap on international students has hit Alberta — even though it still has room
Social Sharing Back in 2020, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology launched a five-year plan that centred largely around boosting its ranks of international students. "Our roots are in Calgary, our ambition is global: to bring more of the world to SAIT," the document reads. By that measure, the plan has been an overwhelming success. The 2023-24 school year saw a record number of international students attend SAIT, far outstripping even what the polytechnic institute had expected. The influx of international students — whose tuition is often double, triple or even quadruple that of Canadian students taking the same courses — brought with it a major revenue boost. International tuition at SAIT totalled $132 million for the year, marking an 81 per cent increase from the year before. (Domestic tuition was up as well, but by a relatively modest 12 per cent, to $78 million.) And while SAIT has seen the largest increase in international students, it's far from alone in this trend. There were nearly 30,000 more international students enrolled at Alberta post-secondary institutions in 2023-24 than there were a decade prior, according to provincial data. Community colleges and polytechnic institutions account for nearly three-quarters of that increase. (SAIT, alone, accounts for 20 per cent.) In early January 2024, however, things started to change. That's when the federal government announced a two-year cap on international study permits. The move was described as targeting "bad actors," particularly in Ontario, where the provincial minister responsible for colleges and universities expressed concern that some institutions were "taking advantage" of international students "with false promises of guaranteed employment, residency and Canadian citizenship." It also came amid concern over the effect international students were having on the housing market. These concerns were particularly acute in Ontario, which had nearly 10 times as many international study-permit holders as Alberta at the end of 2023, and in British Columbia, which had more than triple Alberta's numbers. Given the way the new federal rules allocated study permits to each province, however, Alberta was actually allowed to admit more international students in 2024 than it had in 2023, while the number of newly issued permits in Ontario and B.C. was curtailed. The allocation for Alberta was boosted again for 2025. In other words, while Ontario and B.C. are bumping up against the federal cap, Alberta still has room. Yet while it could welcome more international students than ever before, the number of new study permits that took effect in 2024 actually declined by about 10 per cent compared with the previous year. Leaders of Alberta post-secondary institutions say they've seen even bigger declines in study-permit applications in 2025, as they believe the new federal rules have discouraged many would-be international students from even applying. And, they say, the implications for institutions that have come to rely on these students could be significant. 'No longer welcoming' Pablo Ortiz, dean of students at Alberta University of the Arts, says international applications at his institution are down 26 per cent since the federal cap was announced, and actual admissions of international students are down 30 per cent. The university has not hit its cap and could admit more students — if it could find them — but he says the new federal rules have had a chilling effect on prospective applicants in other countries, who have interpreted them as a sea change in the way Canada views foreign students. "Basically, what we're saying [as a country] is that we're no longer welcoming of international students," he said. "That's the message that everybody, at least, is reading abroad." As a smaller institution, AUArts could be significantly affected by the loss of international students, according to Ortiz. "Some programs that relied heavily on international student enrolment might see reduced offerings or even discontinuation," he said. Calgary's Bow Valley College is much larger, with an international student body that measures in the thousands. But it, too, has been affected. Under the federal rules, it was allowed to provide roughly 2,400 provincial attestation letters last year, which are required documents for most study-permit applicants, confirming they have been assigned a place to study at a particular school. But Bow Valley wasn't able to meet that threshold, said Kara Sayers, dean of enrolment management and registrar, falling about 10 per cent short. "And we enrolled far fewer students than that at the end of the day, because you lose them at other points in time along the process," she said. The loss of tuition revenue can have far-reaching implications, she added. "When you're looking at the financial sustainability or viability of a program, and you don't have that international tuition to offset it, I think there are vulnerabilities that come in," she said. "And it isn't necessarily just programs that have a lot of international students, but all of this gets intertwined for an institution." 'Competitive environment' At The King's University, a small Christian institution in Edmonton, international applications are down 34 per cent. President Melanie Humphreys says it's a "competitive environment" in terms of global recruitment, and prospective students are looking elsewhere after the federal government introduced the cap, along with additional paperwork and rule changes that make coming to Canada more challenging. "If Australia or the U.K. or some other country replies sooner in terms of guaranteeing them of a visa, then that's where they go and that's where the talent goes," she said. Humphreys, who also serves as chair of the Alberta Post-Secondary Network, described the federal cap and associated changes as a "sledgehammer" policy that was largely aimed at a handful of Ontario institutions that were seen to be taking advantage of the study-permit system but is catching Alberta colleges and universities in its wake. "From the very beginning, Alberta actually has been a responsible player," she said. The two-year cap on study permits expires at the end of this year and she'd like to see "a far more surgical approach" from the federal government in 2026. Gabriel Miller, president and CEO of Universities Canada, had a similar view. "What we saw was a series of rapid-fire, blunt policy decisions by the previous federal government that sent a message to the world that Canada wasn't as interested in being a premier destination for the most talented people in the world," he said. "And the rest of the world got that message. And so we've seen a drop in the number of people applying to come here. And we've seen a drop in enrolments." 'There's education and there's edu-business' At SAIT, which has seen the largest growth in international students over the past decade in Alberta, teaching staff are now bracing for a decline. They're also anticipating job losses — particularly among those who aren't members of the full-time, permanent faculty. "We were notified that there was potentially some layoffs," said Blair Howes, president of the SAIT Academic Faculty Association. He said the union hasn't yet received official notice of specific layoffs from SAIT but it's expected some positions will be discontinued. "They have indicated that some of the casual positions and temporary salary ones were likely not to be renewed for the upcoming, next semester." SAIT president David Ross declined to be interviewed for this story. The Calgary-based institution recently informed teaching staff that its photojournalism major would be discontinued in September due to reduced international enrolment. Overall, however, Howes said there's not as much "doom and gloom" among SAIT faculty as perhaps there is at some Ontario institutions, where international student enrolment has seen much more drastic declines. He credited SAIT for handling its expansion of international student enrolment "fairly well," especially compared with how some other institutions in the country have approached it. "I do think that for some of the smaller organizations and institutions, it was pretty much a greed-motivated cash cow, for lack of better words," he said. At the same time, he also believes many institutions, including SAIT, have been forced to look for additional revenue streams due to years of government funding cuts, and boosting international student enrolment has provided an enticing solution. "There's education and there's edu-business, and the two sort of meld together," Howes said. "I would say that, in some cases, that was a forced initiative. I mean, if you're not going to fund post-secondary the way you funded it 10 years ago, but here's the opportunity: you can make up your shortfall by increasing foreign tuition."
CBC
28-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
What's in it for Calgary? Alberta government drops new budget
New funding for some major projects in Calgary was announced on Thursday as Alberta's UCP government released its 2025 budget. This fiscal year, the province is cutting a $30 million cheque to redevelop the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology's campus centre, $12 million to advance planning and regulatory approval processes to mitigate flood and drought hazards in the Bow River basin, and $16 million in new funding over three years for the Contemporary Calgary transformation project at the former Centennial Planetarium. There is also $61 million over three years for the new Central Drug Production and Distribution Centre, in order to support timely access and preparation of prescription medications. Tabled by Finance Minister Nate Horner on Thursday afternoon, the Alberta government's 2025-26 fiscal plan includes other commitments for the city that had already been announced, such as money to extend the Blue Line LRT in the northeast, and various investments in Calgary health-care facilities. "It's a budget that's stable," Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters on Thursday. Yet Gondek also said there are still many things the city doesn't know in terms of specifics of the budget and its impact on Calgary. "At this point, I'm choosing to remain cautiously optimistic. I will say that there was a strong theme, and that was the theme of growth and its challenges," she said. "It's interesting that the … budget speech was so focused on growth and challenges and opportunity within the province, yet there's not really much that addresses the growth that Calgary has seen in the past couple of years, with the fastest growing city in this nation. And there really wasn't a nod to that." One of the budget's most notable feature's is the fulfilment of the UCP's long-promised lower, eight per cent personal tax rate on income under $60,000, which was a significant part of Premier Danielle Smith's campaign in the 2023 election. The tax cut is expected to cost the province $1.2 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year. However, while the province is offering a lower tax bracket, education property taxes will go up over the next two years in order to cover one-third of the education budget. Property tax jump hits Calgary The education property tax is levied alongside municipal property taxes based on assessed property values. The province collects this money by requisitioning it from municipalities, who then must collect it from home, business and farm owners alongside their own municipal property taxes. The province plans to increase its total requisition to $3.1 billion for this fiscal year, up from $2.7 billion last fiscal year, and the bulk of that near $400 million increase will come from Calgary. The annual requisition from Calgary is expected to increase to $1.037 billion, up 17.6 per cent from the previous year. Further, this year's provincial budget notes the share of education operating costs funded by the education property tax will increase to 31.6 per cent, "following historic lows of 28.5 per cent in 2023-24 and 29.5 per cent in 2024-25." For the average Calgary homeowner, this property tax hike means an additional $239 per year — based on the province's estimates according to median home values — compared to just $92 in Edmonton. "And it'll go up again next year," said Horner in an embargoed press conference earlier Thursday. "We're having to fund education in a major way." Notably, it means property taxes for Calgarians will jump the most this year — but exactly by how much seems unclear, as the province and city were reporting different numbers as of Thursday evening. Calgary's mayor told reporters at City Hall that the city's calculations differ. "We now understand that the portion that the government is going to take from Calgary property taxes is going to be up at around six per cent," said Gondek. "So that means that you're going to see probably an additional $9 or so on your property tax bill to help cover this education tax that the provincial government is seeking that's above and beyond what has already been budgeted by the city." CBC News has reached out to the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance for clarification, but did not receive a response by deadline. Low-income transit pass funding maintained Budget 2025 also maintains its funding for Calgary's low-income transit pass that was subject to some turmoil last year, after the province made the decision to cut the funding, only to restore it just 24 hours later. "We were concerned that that was going to disappear in this budget, and it's such an economic driver for our city and so important for Calgarians who live in poverty to get around," said Meaghon Reid, executive director with Vibrant Communities Calgary, a poverty reduction advocacy organization. Reid says the organization is pleased to see that funding commitment maintained in this new budget alongside the new lower tax bracket, as she believes these measures "are going to help folks from an affordability perspective as well, particularly lower income earners." She added the organization is pleased to see budget investments in Calgary's Blue Line LRT, which is also part of provincial funding that was announced previously. And while Calgary's mayor says she's relieved to see that the low-income transit pass will be funded to the same level it was last year, she also maintains the province should be responsible for funding that initiative as a whole. "I would argue that low income and support for people that are low income is the responsibility of the provincial government, yet it is your local government that is covering the lion's share," said Gondek. The mayor added the low-income transit pass is in greater demand than ever before, and that while she's grateful provincial funding has remained static, she's concerned about the position this puts city council in as Calgary continues to grow. "We know that people are struggling with affordability. We also know that about 275 people a day are moving to our city and a proportion of those folks will need to access the low-income transit pass," said Gondek. "If [provincial funding] doesn't keep up with inflation and population growth, it is underfunding." Worst-case tariff scenario Alberta is forecasting it will end the next fiscal year with a $5.2 billion deficit, but that number could climb to $8.7 billion under a worst-case tariff scenario. U.S. President Donald Trump's most recent threat is that these tariffs — which are 10 per cent for Canadian energy and 25 per cent for all other exports — will be coming on Tuesday. What's more, this is the first deficit budget for an Alberta government since the 2020-21 fiscal year, presented during the early days of the pandemic. Alberta's debt is forecasted to reach $83 billion by the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year. Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, told CBC News on Thursday that she believes this budget "struck the best balance that it could" in light of tariff threats and inflationary pressures. "We have to balance everything, one against the other," said Yedlin. Other key takeaways for Calgary under the Alberta government's 2025-26 fiscal plan include: $2 million decrease in capital for the Glenbow Museum renovations, which will now be funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. $485 million over the next three years for Deerfoot Trail upgrades, a provincially owned and maintained highway. $225 million over three years to fund various school projects across Alberta, which was part of an initiative previously announced by the provincial government. It includes the planning and design of 18 new school projects in Calgary and area. $45 million over three years for the new Office of the Chief Medical Examiner building. Funding for the Airdrie Regional Health Centre will begin this year, with $3 million going to planning and design over the next two years.
