A new Auditor General’s report suggests Ottawa has succeeded in cutting international student numbers, but is struggling to enforce the system’s rules, with tens of thousands of potential violations flagged and only a small share investigated. 

Immigration officials flagged more than 150,000 students as potentially non-compliant with their study permits in 2023 and 2024, but launched only a fraction of investigations, citing limited resources. 

The audit also raised concerns about hundreds of cases involving fraud or misrepresentation that were not followed up, and noted the department does not know why study permit approval rates have dropped sharply or whether students are leaving Canada after their permits expire. 

Sharry Aiken, a professor at Queen’s University Faculty of Law, said it’s really down to resource allocation in the department, especially coming at a time when Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is seeing a number of significant cuts. 

According to the 2026-27 departmental plans released by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, 14,908 full-time equivalent positions will be eliminated at 55 federal departments over the next three years.

Both Canadian Border Service Agency and IRCC will see full time equivalent positions cut over the next three years. 

In February, CBSA told CTV News Ottawa that it would cut 348 positions that report or are in headquarters in Ottawa. While full time equivalent positions in IRCC would see a decline by 1,440 over the next few years. 

At a House committee meeting on Monday, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said findings from the release is a “preliminary look” at the International Student Program, 

“The report and the Auditor General does recognize the progress that we are making to reduce the student numbers, to diversify the student population and to improve the integrity of the program,” Diab said on Monday at a House committee meeting. 

Aiken said she’s “modestly sympathetic” for the minister, noting that it may be too early to judge the full impact of the four-year reform plan. Still, she said Diab must be held accountable for what she described as the department’s “utter disarray.”

“It’s not a lack of legal tools,” Aiken said, adding that the issue lies in how the policies are being executed and implemented. 

In a statement, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner called for the abolishment of the Temporary Foreign Worker program and to focus on developing better skills training to ensure Canadian businesses hire Canadian workers. 

“Particularly Canadian youth who, more than ever, are struggling to find jobs after a decade of Liberal failures,” Rempel Garner said.