Quebec adopts bill to restrict international student enrolment
Universities, opposition worry about Bill 74 undermining academic autonomy
The Quebec government has adopted a bill giving the province more power to restrict foreign students' access to higher education institutions.
By amending Quebec's immigration law, Bill 74 provides education and higher education ministers more leeway in restricting international students' entry as of next year.
The government intends to determine international students' ability to enrol at certain colleges and universities based on criteria, including region, programs, language, cohort size, labour needs and what Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge described as "government priorities."
The bill passed on Thursday with 78 votes in favour, 27 against and one abstention.
Prior to the vote, Québec Solidaire immigration critic Guillaume Cliche-Rivard told reporters in Quebec City that the possibility of the new law encroaching on universities' autonomy remains "very much a problem."
He noted that while he is in favour of better managing the number of non-permanent residents in Quebec, he had pushed for amendments to include more consultations with universities. Roberge rejected them.
"It tells me a lot as to his real intentions on the ground," Cliche-Rivard said.
Data from Statistics Canada suggests that as of Sept. 30, 2023, Quebec had just over 588,000 non-permanent residents, including nearly 124,000 study permit holders — 80 per cent of which are enrolled at post-secondary institutions, according to Roberge.
The 12-page bill does not contain a cap on the number of international students who may move to the province, but the minister had said there would certainly be fewer of them.
Leaders of Quebec universities had raised concerns during consultations about the bill overstepping and had asked the immigration minister to take measures to reassure them, but "none of that happened," Cliche-Rivard said.
"I'm very concerned that Minister Roberge couldn't make the step forward to reassure them," Cliche-Rivard said.
After the bill's passage, Roberge defended it, saying it provides "more guarantees for the higher education network" because the immigration minister — who could already reduce the number of students in Quebec — is now required to consult with the education and higher education ministers before making that kind of decision.
"We want to be able to make some choices and we will take our time to make great choices," he said.
Roberge acknowledged that universities are worried and said they need to "wait for the action."
"For now, we did nothing," he said. "We just have a new law with new abilities for the government, so we'll have some discussions with them."
Impact on English vocational education
Bill 74 was tabled in part in response to reports of some private colleges mainly serving as channels to obtain Canadian citizenship.
Roberge alluded in October to an unnamed private trade school that allegedly saw its enrolment of international students jump by 1,392 per cent between January 2023 and May 2024.
In November, the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) published a brief calling on the government to postpone the bill's adoption and exempt the association from the bill because of the "small scale of [the association's] network."
Member school boards of QESBA serve about 100,000 students in over 300 elementary schools, high schools and adult and vocational centres across Quebec.
"Our vocational programs are designed to address specific workforce needs. International students often enrol in these programs to gain specialized skills and fill labour shortages in critical industries," the brief reads. "Some programs are dependent on foreign student registration to open a group."
The association said the Quebec government needs to understand the impact of the federal government's upcoming immigration measures before implementing ones that could further jeopardize English institutions in the province.
With files from Cathy Senay