Records show Immigration Minister Marc Miller allowed 807,000 foreign students to work unlimited hours in Canada without any research on how it would affect Canadian jobseekers, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “I don’t think students are taking jobs away from other people given the labour shortages that are happening in Canada,” said Miller at a press scrum. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said the information did not exist. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said it had no response on the information it was requesting. ESDC and IRCC were asked in an access to information and privacy request to disclose all research, studies, literature reviews and data about the impact of repealing the 20-hour work week cap on foreign students on labour markets, youth unemployment and hiring of post-secondary students. No data was found. Miller estimated four-fifths of the 807,000 foreign students in Canada were working more than 20 hours per week. A reporter asked if he had taken a look at the impact the extension could have on Canadian permanent residents competing for the same jobs. “Well, look, there’s labour shortages across the country,” said Miller. Foreign students had been limited to a 20-hour work week under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Cabinet suspended the cap in 2022. “It is costly to be a student in Canada,” he said.“My focus primarily is to make sure that the public policy that we have in place is one that reflects the ability of the student to actually do what they’re supposed to be doing, which is study, without bankrupting themselves.”As late as 2000, data showed few foreign students (22,000) were in the Canadian workforce. Statistics Canada said this number had ballooned to 354,000 of them in 2019. Miller extended the regulations that permitted 500,000 foreign students to work full time in Canada on December 7. READ MORE: Immigration minister says hiring foreign students ‘popular’“It was popular,” he said. Data showed the unemployment rate for Canadians increased after the rules were modified.
