Manitoba deserves a voice on international students

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/07/2025 (254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has been noticeable for several years now — decades even — but our city has a significant and growing population of immigrants and refugees. They come from all over the world, including Nigeria and other parts of Africa, Central and South America, South Asia, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Mauritius, Afghanistan and nations throughout the Middle East.

We have been blessed as a community to see that growth, with thousands of newcomers settling down in our neighbourhoods, buying homes and opening businesses of their own.

In fact, immigrants play a significant role in the development of small businesses in Manitoba. As the site canadianimmigrant.ca notes, immigrant-led enterprises are emerging as “powerful drivers of innovation and job creation.” The Business Development Bank of Canada similarly states that immigrant entrepreneurship is becoming a major force in shaping Canada’s economy.

While there has been a growing pushback in this country to immigration, the reality is that a large part of our economy is driven through newcomers who bring with them an abundance of drive and ambition to better their lives, and take advantage of the opportunities this country affords them.

Newcomers to Brandon come here in some very specific ways. Some are temporary workers who enter the country on a work visa with a job offer from places like Maple Leaf Foods or other large corporations. Some have come here as refugees seeking shelter and a better life. Others have moved here and sought landed immigrant status before eventually applying for citizenship.

But for many thousands of people who come to Canada, their first experience in this country is with a student visa in hand as they pay tuition at post-secondary institutions. Those tuitions have helped pay for many of the courses and salaries that keep our universities and colleges afloat, even as public funding from provincial governments falls short of the need.

But when those dollars dry up, our post-secondary institutions suffer. We saw this first-hand here in Brandon last month when Assiniboine College announced that it was halving its culinary arts student intake and discontinuing its baking and hospitality programs.

As we reported, the change was caused by updates to the federal international student program on June 25 — in particular, the restrictions on post-graduation work permits (PGWP) for non-degree programs not tied to national labour shortages.

“We knew when the federal government unilaterally made the decision that it would have impacts, and we are starting to see it in real time,” Manitoba Advanced Education and Training Minister Renée Cable told the Sun this week.

For Assiniboine, not only does the loss of funding impact the culinary arts program as a whole here in Brandon — which, to be clear, this community has been very proud to have within its midst — it impacts other programs as well by hurting the reputation of the college.

In her comments to the Sun this week, Assiniboine College director of communications and marketing Anya McNabb admitted as much, saying these changes make the college, and the country, look worse as a candidate for students.

“The ongoing uncertainty and unpredictable nature of changes to programs deemed eligible for international post-graduate work permits continues to make Canada a less desirable study destination for prospective international students,” she wrote.

But she also noted one other important detail — the impact to the community as a whole. As college proponents are proud to tell anyone who will listen, a large majority of graduates from Assiniboine College not only have jobs within nine months of graduation, 95 per cent of recent graduates remain in the province.

“With 83 per cent of these graduates originating in the province, that’s a net population gain for Manitoba as a result of students studying at Assiniboine,” reads a June 7 press release from the college.

International students come here to learn, and many end up staying in Brandon or take up positions within the province. That’s a win for Manitoba. But the federal government’s position is hurting us.

It’s the same story at Brandon University, with the outgoing president, David Docherty, telling media last April that international applications for first-time students plummeted nearly 60 per cent at BU this past spring.

“The word is out in the international community for students … that Canada is no longer as welcoming as it was,” Docherty told the CBC. “That’s why we’re seeing the dramatic decrease.”

During a media scrum on Wednesday, Premier Wab Kinew said that when post-secondary institutions are preparing for a certain number of international students and they don’t reach that target, it can hurt.

“When the federal government makes a change like this, after BU and after (Assiniboine College) have already planned on having that money coming in from international students, it pulls the rug out from under them.”

That’s an accurate statement, as we can clearly see.

Minister Cable asserts that the province is doing what it can to help, by talking with the federal government and investing in its colleges and universities.

In May, that translated to a $120-million boost to Assiniboine College toward the construction of its Prairie Innovation Centre. And just this week, the province told Brandon University it would receive $52 million toward the renewal of the Brodie Science Centre.

We applaud the province for trying to talk some sense into the federal government, and for its continued investments in Brandon post-secondary institutions. But when it comes to programming, these investments won’t be enough if Ottawa continues to enact changes to international student uptake without provinces like Manitoba at the table.

Long term, these changes will only serve to hurt this community.