New student housing on hold at St. Clair College amid expected $40M student cap hit

New student housing on hold at St. Clair College New student housing has been put on hold amid expected $40M student cap hit. CTV Windsor's Ricardo Veneza reports

As the federal and provincial governments institute new measures meant to crackdown on ballooning international student enrolments, post-secondary institutions in Windsor continue to take a wait-and-see approach — but the new measures have prompted St. Clair College to pull back on plans to build a new international student residence.

On Friday, the Ford government became the latest to announce new measures meant to "protect students and improve the integrity of Ontario’s post-secondary education" system following the Trudeau government’s announcement of a two-year cap of new international student visas.

"I don’t think there’s any doubt minister [Marc] Miller had to make a move," said Ron Seguin, the Vice President of International Relations at St. Clair College. "We’re still trying to figure out how that affects us on the ground."

Miller announced that new visas would drop from the 560,000 issued in 2023, to 364,000.

St. Clair College averages about 5,000 international students in any given year over the last five years, according to Seguin, with 2,600 of those students residing in the downtown core. The total student population across the Windsor and Chatham campuses is roughly 12,000 students.

Ottawa’s move aims to reduce the number of new visas by about 35 per cent. The actual caps will be allocated based on population and province — which Seguin anticipates will lead to a 50 per cent reduction at St. Clair resulting in a $40 million hit to the bottom line of the operational budget beginning in 2025-26.

"It’s critical to Ontario education right now," said Seguin.

According to Seguin, the college can rely on "sizable" reserves to weather the uncertainty and is not advocating for an increase to domestic tuition to offset the losses.

"St. Clair is not reliant [on international students]. We look at it as an opportunity," said Seguin. "They bring great diversity to our campus. They’re a positive to the learning environment. They’re positive economically."

The new regulations are, in large part, aimed at reducing pressures on Canada’s housing markets as an affordability crisis grips cities across Ontario and the country.

"If international students are harming that then we’ve got to work together to alleviate it," said Seguin. "Every day’s a new day right now in figuring out how this portfolio’s going to move forward."

However, there appears to be a Catch-22 at work in Windsor — without the revenue from international students, paying to house international students is an uphill battle.

A plan to build a ‘Global Village’ development at the site of the former Grace Hospital in Windsor to accommodate 400 students fell through after city council axed the plan over frustration with developer Fairmount Properties and a lack of progress.

The college has already built a residence accommodating 512 students.

Seguin says the college wants to build that second residence to accommodate 1,000 international students in total, but the current level of uncertainty has put those plans on hold.

"We’re still looking in that area, but we need to know our cap because the last thing we want to do is get into large capital projects and have a 50 per cent permanent reduction in study permits," said Seguin. "That’s basically what we decided today. We can pivot quickly if we know more."

UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR

CTV News reached out to the University of Windsor for comment and was provided a statement concerning the fast-moving developments:

"The University of Windsor is closely evaluating the implications of the federal government’s two-year cap on international study permits.

We remain committed to working with our government colleagues to ensure permit allocation reflects the responsible recruitment practices of post-secondary institutions with established track records. We do welcome the announcement that current study permit holders will not be affected, that master's and PhD students will be exempt from the cap and that they will soon be eligible to apply for a three-year work permit."

Both the Ontario Colleges and the Council of Ontario Universities [COU], representing their respective institutions, have argued the federal change is a blunt instrument already wreaking havoc.

A statement from Ontario Colleges describes it as "total chaos" while the COU implored Ottawa to go “back to the drawing board” to find a more refined approach.

PROVINCIAL REGULATIONS

The province announced a series of new measures to be enacted, including a moratorium on new public college-private partnerships and a review of large international student programs.

A new requirement will also be for a letter of attestation, meant to require colleges and universities ensure housing guarantees for incoming international students.

"That adds an extra layer of integrity to the system,” said Seguin. “I think provincially, improvements are needed."

Seguin stressed intervention and reform is required as there are few checks in place to weed out bad actors.

"Two months ago if we would’ve taken 20,000 students, I’m not sure that there was a lever to stop that and certainly Windsor-Essex couldn’t accommodate an additional 20,000 students so, we kept to our course,” said Seguin. “There’s a good case to make that some schools have too many students right now."

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OPPOSITION CRITIQUE

In a news release, the Opposition NDP decried the Ford government’s announcement as "half-measures" that failed to acknowledge the "desperate need for investments" in public post-secondary institutions.

"Under this government’s watch, we have seen universities forced to file for bankruptcy," said Jamie West, the NDP critic for Labour, Training and Skills Development. "They have been asleep at the wheel for the past five years while public colleges and universities languished, paving the way for a predatory private, for-profit education system that has only harmed students."

The NDP argues the Progressive Conservatives have created the environment for exploitation and are only now reversing its move that lifted the moratorium on public-private colleges in 2019.

"Now, they’re sloughing off their responsibilities to public colleges and universities instead of helping them, forcing students and the institutions themselves into a future of uncertainty," said West.

In its own news release, the government stressed it would work with sector partners and Ottawa to find ways to further crack down on bad actor recruiters.

"We must find more ways to work together to combat gross recruitment practices while protecting our ability to attract the world’s best and brightest to study here in Ontario," said Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities. "These actions will also ensure that we implement sensible policies that protect against worsening Ontario’s housing affordability issues. We need to ensure that students coming to study here have a place to live."

The province defends its handling of post-secondary education in Ontario, pointing to a blue-ribbon panel of experts created in March 2023 meant to help advise the government in how to best keep the sector stable and financially viable.

In 2019, the Ford government cut tuition fees 10 per cent and brought in a general freeze for domestic students, which continued for the 2023-24 academic year allowing a 5 per cent increase variance.

According to the COU, at least ten universities expect operating deficits and reports the four-year freeze has led to cuts affecting student programs, supports and services.