The auditor general has found significant gaps in Ottawa’s foreign student program and in the RCMP’s recruitment drive, according to newly released reports.
Auditor General Karen Hogan spoke to reporters on her findings after tabling her latest performance audits in the House of Commons on March 23. The reports cover international student program reforms, RCMP recruitment, and the public service pay system.
One of the reports tabled March 23 found that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had failed to verify whether study permit holders were complying with the terms of their permits.
The immigration department had introduced a tool that verified 97 percent of acceptance letters from designated learning institutions submitted with study permit applications. However, the department only investigated 4,057 of the 150,000 cases flagged in 2023 and 2024 for possible violations of study permit conditions, the report said….