@anonuser1234 partly because they’re an easy target to try and appease the mases and because there’s quite a bit of abuse in the system that’s gotten a lot of press lately. Still it’s an easy way for the government to show that they’re taking mass concerns about housing affordability and the strain on government services and infrastructure seriously without having to really change their immigration policy. It’s a bit of smoke and mirrors to be honest. Having said that recent figures put international student numbers at 1 million. That’s really high for a country the size of Canada and it is leading to exploitation and bad actors primarily in the college sector but not exclusively so. It’s starting to erode the quality and reputation of our post-secondary education sector so from that perspective it does need to be addressed. There were reports that up to 20% of admitted students to some of these third-party colleges were not actually attending class and no-one really knows where they are (though the guess is working illegally). There were also problems with foreign admissions consultancy companies in countries like India that were issuing false admissions documents or forging credentials in order to get student visas or exploit naïve students. The problem is that while a more targeted approach to deal with these bad actors would be preferable, education is a provincial responsibility so the only ability the federal government has to affect changes is through the granting of student visas. The rest is up to the provinces to rectify and so far they’ve not been giving any signals that they’re inclined to do so. This may force their hand.
As to housing, the high number of international students in some communities is having a further detrimental impact on already short supply. Most colleges and universities only have sufficient on-campus residence space to house first year students. After that the majority of students have to find off campus housing putting even greater strain on availability and rent prices.