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U.S. President Donald Trump talks with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization Plenary Session at the NATO summit in Watford, Britain, December 4, 2019.
Hard Numbers: Trump says Canada should join the US, Ireland’s new government braces for Trump tariffs, Research confirms Kremlin abducted Ukrainian children, Vietnam real-estate tycoon faces death sentence for fraud
1,000: The winners of Ireland’s election last week are scrambling to put together a new coalition government before Donald Trump takes office in January, expediting a process that normally takes months. The rush comes from Irish lawmakers recognizing that they must form a government strong enough to withstand the threat of Trump’s tariffs and protectionist rhetoric. The nearly 1,000 American multinational companies operating in Ireland are by far the biggest contributors to the state’s income and corporate tax bases, leaving the Emerald Isle highly exposed if American companies begin reshoring to avoid tariffs.
314: Research from Yale’s School of Public Health revealed on Tuesday that Russia took 314 children from occupied Ukrainian territories, stripped them of their Ukrainian identity, and put them in the custody of Russian families using the Kremlin’s aircraft and funds. The report asserts that the deportations were part of a systemic, Putin-backed program to “Russify” Ukrainian children.
12.5 billion: A Vietnamese court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for Truong My Lan, a real estate tycoon convicted of embezzling $12.5 billion. It offered to downgrade the sentence to life in prison if she reimbursed $11 billion, but her lawyers argued she had already repaid the money. The scale of Lan’s deception rattled Vietnam’s economic outlook earlier this year, spooking foreign investors at a time when Vietnam was trying to position itself as an alternative for businesses moving their supply chains away from China.
New university graduates line-up in a hall before convocation in Ontario, Canada.
Foreign students get caught up in Canada’s housing crisis
As Canada’s housing crisis continues – with the average selling price up 6% in six months, to CA$668,754, and the average 1 bedroom rental price at CA$2,078 – policymakers are looking at the effect of international students on prices. Last year, Canada saw over 800,000 international students arrive in a country of roughly 40 million people, over half of whom ended up in Ontario. In 2022, nearly 1 in 48 people in Canada were international students on a study permit.
International students are critical to university budgets and major contributors to the economy, at somewhere near CA$18 billion in 2018. With tuition caps on domestic rates and insufficient government funding, schools turn to foreign students to make up the difference. Those same students are also permitted to work while in Canada, and do. International students often become permanent residents, with roughly 30% of them doing so within 15 years.
But Housing Minister Sean Fraser is now considering a cap on the number of international students welcomed to the country in order to take pressure off housing prices. This comes as Canada recently revised its immigration target upwards, aiming for 500,000 admissions in 2025.
Canada isn’t building enough housing to keep up with demand, including purpose-built rentals and non-market options. The Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation says the country must build over 800,000 units a year. In 2022, it built 260,000. On-campus housing options are also inadequate, lagging behind growing demand.
In the coming months, with students set to start school in September and applications for next year due in February and March, we’ll be watching to see how the government manages competing needs to fund universities, welcome newcomers, juice GDP, and house students – and everyone else.