Cap hammers international student enrolment as Ontario colleges brace for more changes [Video]

The Ontario government and its public colleges are both sounding the alarm over an impending labour shortage as the impact of a cap on international students begins to bite in the province’s post-secondary sector.

At the beginning of the year, as part of a plan to cut the number of temporary residents, the Trudeau government brought in a strict cap on the number of international students colleges and universities could accept.

While Ontario’s 44 post-secondary institutions continue to study the impacts of the reduction, colleges say the volume of students has already dropped after the initial cut in enrolment.

“We’ve definitely seen the impact of that,” Marketa Evans, president and CEO of Colleges Ontario, told Global News. “In September of this past year, the international student enrolment at Ontario colleges is about half of what it was in September of last year.”

The federal cap is set to become tighter still next year, when Canada issues 437,000 study permits, down …