Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Kamaljit Lehal. I am the chair of the CBA national immigration law section. I am here with my colleague, Will Tao, who is also a member of the section.

Thank you for the opportunity to come before you on this important topic.

The recent reforms to this program are intended to primarily target fraud within the system. While these measures may help to somewhat safeguard the program's integrity, they directly and adversely impact students who came to Canada in good faith, committed years to studying and working here and were led to believe, through government messaging, that by doing so there was a pathway to permanent residence. The reforms now expect students to leave the country yet do not hold bad actors accountable.

This committee has been tasked with studying the impact of these reforms. We need to look at both the immediate and long-term consequences.

In terms of immediate impact, again, it's on the students already in Canada, who paid premium tuition fees to pursue studies here under an immigration system that supported their families to be here while they studied, permitted spouses to work and provided a postgraduate work permit as the next step towards the ultimate goal of PR.

Quite abruptly, the legal framework has changed, and tens of thousands of students in Canada are now grappling with uncertainty and the threat of removal from the country they've come to call home.

Many of those students—and I really want to emphasize this—are members of racialized and equity-deserving communities who are more likely to face barriers in addressing the challenges they now face to their immigration status.

From a humanitarian perspective, we must also acknowledge the profound mental health toll these changes are taking on international students.

In terms of long-term consequences, it's undisputed that international students contributed to Canada's GDP, supported jobs in Canada and paid taxes. We need to assess the long-term impact of the exodus of thousands of students from Canada under these reforms.

Another long-term consequence is the reputational harm to Canada's immigration system resulting from misaligned messaging, which may cause future students to think twice about Canada being their destination for studies.

Additionally, the reforms requiring students to reapply for a study permit in order to change institutions may further erode Canada's appeal, because it creates a two-tiered system.

Thank you.

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