The Conservative Party is calling for immediate accountability measures following the Auditor General's report on Canada's international student program, released May 26, 2026. The report identified significant oversight failures in how Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) manages the program, which brought over 800,000 international students to Canada in 2023.
The Auditor General's findings mark the first comprehensive federal audit of the international student system since the program underwent major expansion in the past decade. Previous reviews focused on individual institutions rather than IRCC's federal-level controls, leaving gaps in how the department verifies designated learning institutions and monitors student compliance with visa conditions.
The audit found IRCC lacks adequate systems to track whether international students remain enrolled at their designated institutions after arrival, whether they work beyond permitted hours, and whether institutions maintain the standards required to host foreign students. The report also noted delays in processing study permit applications, with some students waiting over six months for decisions despite IRCC's stated service standard of 60 days for straightforward cases. The Auditor General identified weaknesses in how IRCC shares information with provincial education authorities, who regulate colleges and universities but depend on federal immigration data to enforce compliance.
"The government has failed to protect the integrity of our immigration system," the Conservative immigration critic stated in response to the report.