Canada's crackdown on its higher education industry has started to reduce the number of foreign students, an early sign that its rapid pace of population growth may ease over the next few years.
The number of people who hold only study permits dropped by 24,594 in the first quarter, compared with a decline of 16,003 during the same period last year, Statistics Canada reported on Wednesday.
The slight reduction also helped slow down the overall growth of temporary immigration. The country added 131,810 non-permanent residents in the first quarter, one of the lowest quarterly net increases since early 2022.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government aims to cut international student permits by 35 per cent from last year in an effort to curb explosive post-pandemic population increases and quell public anger over housing shortages and strains on public services.
While the cap on student visas isn't expected to take full effect until later this year, the latest data showed that the policies may have already been working to break off strings of record-breaking gains over the past several quarters.
The population grew 0.6% in the first quarter to 41 million. That's the same quarterly growth rate seen in the previous three months but a marked slowdown from 1.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2023.
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