Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said Housing Minister Sean Fraser has experienced an epiphany about the international student program being out of control. “Pop quiz: Who was the immigration minister in charge?” tweeted Poilievre on Thursday. .Fraser was sworn in as immigration, refugees and citizenship minister in 2021. He later became housing minister, where he acknowledged temporary immigration programs are straining the housing supply. “So our temporary foreign workers program or in particular the international student program,” he said. “And this is where we have a serious issue.” Poilievre questioned Canada having a serious issue. “Who was the last immigration minister?” he said. He reminded people Fraser used to be the immigration, refugees, and citizenship minister. Over the last few years, Fraser admitted Canada has welcomed hundreds of thousands of international students. In 2022, the Canadian government processed 452,000 students, which was an all-time record. With some educational institutions, he said he has “the sincerely held belief that has come to exist just to exploit the program for the personal financial gain behind some of these schools if we can call them that.” When he sees these schools bringing in enormous numbers of international students and lying about them being able to obtain permanent residency, he said there is a problem. With this problem, Poilievre said Fraser was in charge. He created the problem. CBC Gem host Mark Kelley acknowledged Canada has an international reputation for allowing post-secondary institutions to treat international students as cash cows. In response, Fraser said they might be engaging in financial impropriety rather than providing a quality education to students. “We have concerns,” he said. Poilievre concluded by saying Fraser was clueless. “Sean Fraser is responsible,” he said. “And now he is in charge of housing.” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said on January 9 more than one-third of one million foreign students were allowed to remain in Canada as permanent residents in the past three years. READ MORE: Immigration Canada says 355,000 foreign students stayed in Canada“In the past three years, over 627,000 former temporary residents became permanent residents,” said IRCC. “This includes over 355,000 former international students.”
