A commentary by the executive director of the Victoria Forum and former dean of the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria.

The 2025 federal budget, announced this week, came with a fundamental contradiction.

On the one hand, it was about securing Canada’s position amid disruption, consistent with the desire to double our non-U.S. exports within a decade.

It involved a focus on innovation and a plan to attract research talent. These are important and desirable policy outcomes.

Yet, at the same time, it involved a plan that further cuts the number of student visas available dramatically, a move that undercuts our ability to diversify our export markets and encourage innovation, while simultaneously achieving the remarkable feat of shooting ourselves in both feet.

The plan has reduced the current target of 305,900 new foreign students to 155,000 in 2026, and then 150,000 in each of 2027 and 2028. The current target itself is a significant reduction from the 510,361 student permits approved in 2023.

When the federal government imposed caps on international student numbers in 2024, the stated rationale was to reduce pressure on the housing market and on health care and other services.

Little attention was paid, however, to the........

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