January 29, 2025

PERCHOTTE: Why Are the NDP Leaving Faith-Based Schools Behind?

Universities and colleges across Manitoba will soon learn how many international students will be able to enroll in their programs for the 2025-26 school year. And just like last year, the number of international students allowed to study at Canadian schools will be lower.

That’s because the federal government has imposed restrictions on the number of foreign students coming to Canada last year and those lower enrolment numbers will carry forward for another year, at least.

The fallout from fewer international students attending Canadian universities and colleges is already being felt because these students typically pay tuition fees that are three to four times higher than those paid by Manitoba students. The University of Manitoba is reporting losses of $8 million as enrolment of international students fell by 30% as of November 2024. At the University of Winnipeg, enrolment plummeted 34%, resulting in losses of $4 million.

Earlier this month, the U of W announced it was cancelling an English-language program aimed at international students. The university also suspended the women’s soccer program due to what the school’s president and vice-chancellor described as significant financial challenges.

While Ottawa sets the overall number of international students allowed into Canada, it is Manitoba’s Advanced Education and Training Minister who determines how those reductions are meted out. Publicly-funded universities and colleges receive the lion’s share of the headlines and funding, but Minister Renée Cable has determined private, faith-based secondary schools and colleges will bear a disproportionate burden of the foreign student restrictions.

Booth University College received 80 study permit applications in 2023, but was allocated just 44 spots in 2024, a 45% reduction. Steinbach Bible College saw its foreign student count drop from 18 to 15, a 16% cut. Providence University College received 670 study permit applications in 2023, but was allowed to enroll just 37 international students in 2024, a staggering 94% reduction. Linden Christian School will not be accepting any international students for the 2025-26 school year.

The Advanced Education Minister’s decision to disproportionately target faith-based colleges and universities is short-sighted and risks long-term harm to Manitoba’s independent education sector and our broader economy. Institutions like Booth and Providence attract students from diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds, and help our province foster connections around the world. Restricting study permits for these schools not only jeopardizes their sustainability but sends the wrong signal about the province’s commitment to fairness and its ability to allow our schools to freely compete on the global stage. International students begin their adult lives in Manitoba, finding employment after university or college, starting a family, contributing to the economy and growing the population for generations to come.

The Advanced Education Minister needs to stand up for all schools and stay out of the business of picking winners and losers to ensure all Manitoban students are equally set up for success.

What the minister needs to do is to make colleges and universities impacted by foreign student reductions whole again through proper funding, just like she promised to do. All colleges and universities will be forced to increase tuition fees and cut programs for Manitoba students and foreign students if provincial support to post-secondary institutions doesn’t increase.

We’re already seeing the impact of financial challenges at the University of Winnipeg with the loss of their women’s soccer program and the cancellation of the English language program. What other cuts and tuition fee increases are on the horizon? Another round of tuition fee increases will hurt Manitoba families already struggling with high inflation, high grocery and gas prices, and the looming uncertainty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs and resulting job losses.

What Manitoba students and international students need is a government that properly funds post-secondary education and puts a priority on success for everyone.

-30-

For media inquiries, please contact PCCaucus_Media@leg.gov.mb.ca