CIMM – Opening Remarks – May 04, 2026

Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on
Auditor General’s Report on the International Student Program

The Honourable Lena Metlege Diab, E.C.N.S., K.C., P.C., MP,
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Ottawa, Ontario
May 4, 2026

446 words (~5 minutes)

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Chair,

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the International Student Program and the Auditor General’s report.

I welcome the Auditor’s report and we all agree: the International Student Program must have strong oversight to eliminate fraud.

The report covers a period of significant change. The final years of our multi-year reforms to strengthen the integrity of the program will benefit from the auditor’s recommendations.

The report did find some important improvements. It showed

• new arrivals dropped by more than 60% in 2025
• the letter of acceptance verification system is preventing fraud
• the cancellation of the Student Direct Stream, which was a high source of fraudulent activities, was very effective

However, the issues raised by the Auditor General were concerning and we take them seriously.

Officers are expected to flag, investigate and report every suspected case of potential fraud. Our teams will review all cases in the program flagged by the report by the end of 2026. Anyone who’s submitted fraudulent documents in the past will have a note on their file for all future border and immigration decisions.

We’re also addressing study permit renewals. We’ve implemented an advanced analytics model to triage permit extensions, and to assign them based on risk profile.

Extensions for those who came through the Student Direct Stream are receiving the additional scrutiny. By the fall, we expect to complete our audit of the permit extensions in the report.

153,000 Flagged Cases

Recognizing the improvements we’ve made, and that more work is needed, I want to clarify the cases flagged as “potentially non-compliant” in the Auditor’s report. There were 153 000 cases flagged by schools for potential non-compliance. We have since broken down that number.

Most—78%—were cleared. The students were compliant, had transferred to another school, or had applied in another stream.

The rest—22%—were presumed to have left the country, but may have overstayed their permits. To avoid this issue from repeating, we’re working on a process to identify and confirm when students with expired permits— and no other applications in progress—have left Canada. This will also help the CBSA with potential enforcement action.

Again, we expect to implement this system by the end of the year. We’re also following up on 100% of flagged cases.

We continue regular consultations on program allocations with partners, including provinces and territories. This helps ensure provinces and territories have flexibility to align permits with their labour market needs, and priorities, and the capacities of institutions and communities.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that by the end of the year, we’ll review all cases flagged by the Auditor. We’ll have added measures to strengthen program integrity. And we remain on track to meet our planned four-year reforms.

Thank you.