I think this is acknowledging that we are allowing people to immigrate here by taking some perfunctory education, working as much as is allowed (perhaps some under the table) and try to get their PR. Frankly, we should eliminate the pointless 'education', as it is frankly a waste. Quite a cottage industry for local colleges like Humber, Centennial, Sheridan, etc.
I want to agree with this, but I feel a need to make a few distinctions and caveats.
First, I think we want to distinguish between full universities granting spots to some of the world's best and brightest in both undergraduate and graduate programs, vs a more basic diploma from a Community College.
The former is useful to Canada, and hopefully, useful to the student as well; the latter is much more questionable on both fronts.
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Second, we need to identify that a portion of this has been driven, particularly in Ontario, by inordinately low per student post-secondary education funding; which both Colleges and Universities are trying to offset through their recruitment of higher tuition foreign students.
So we want to be sure, insofar as we cut off some of that revenue stream that we are protecting key programs and the number of domestic student spots through direct government grants.
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Third, I think we need to note that insofar as the education provided is good; and we as a nation agree on the desirability of population increase, I'm not intrinsically opposed to going this route, simply not this way.
We need to make sure students and employers and society writ-large are benefiting from what we're doing; and part of that means not recruiting people nominally into colleges so they can work as office cleaners, table bussers,
security guards, or fast food workers.
If we want more people, and want them trained in IT, swell, let's train them in IT, but make sure they are able to focus on school with work limited largely to summers, or perhaps a single weekend shift somewhere, by providing at-cost, on-campus housing, and by not over-charging for tuition.
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Finally, I think we serious need to discuss whether absolute population growth is what we want; and if so, what form that should take (ie, luring immigrants to the north or smaller communities vs everyone in Toronto/Mtrl/Vancouver; getting people with the right skill sets, and making sure we have the requisite amount of private-sector housing to support that population growth without a stilted market. )
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What's absolutely terrible here is that we're enacting a policy that makes the education farcically bad whether people stay in Canada or not, which makes the exorbitant tuitions we charge even more of a ripoff........
All the while driving up housing costs and driving down entry level labour costs to the detriment of most Canadians new and old alike.