When I became president of Selkirk College in the spring of 2022, I joined a college that is deeply tied to the communities it serves. We’re in a rural area of about 90,000 people in the West Kootenay and Boundary regions in B.C.’s southern Interior, and our annual economic impact on the region is around $450 million. The college and its students support about one in 12 jobs in our area. During my first year, whenever I ran errands downtown, people would often make a point of introducing themselves and tell me about their connection to the college.

At the time, Selkirk had about 2,500 students, including 800 international students in business, hospitality, health-care and human-services programs. Attracting international students has become necessary for postsecondary institutions over the last two decades: across Canada, provincial funding has fallen behind rising operating costs. From 2006 to 2024, the share of provincial budgets earmarked for post-secondary education fell by roughly 30 per cent. Meanwhile, many provinces have frozen or limited tuition increases; in B.C., domestic tuition can only rise by two per cent each year.

Provincial governments don’t subsidize costs for international students, so their tuition is higher, generating additional revenue that has made all of our programming financially viable. These newcomers do not replace domestic students. In fact, they help us make more programs available to everyone. They also bring global perspectives to our classrooms—an important addition in rural areas like ours, which are generally less culturally diverse than cities.

Newcomers provide much-needed skilled labour, too, especially in areas where population growth is slow and the workforce is aging. Without immigration, the West Kootenay population could decline by six per cent by 2031; among the working population, it will shrink by eight per cent. Many of our international graduates secure work permits, find local jobs, then make their homes here when they apply for citizenship. Today, if I walk into a hotel, retail store, childcare centre, health........

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