2025 Canada Games are due to happen in St John’s in Summer of 2025. St. John's and surrounding municipalities will host the Canada Summer Games in August 2025. These Games will feature approximately 4,600 athletes and coaches in over 17 sports from all 13 provinces and territories. Up to 70 staff will be hired and more than 5,000 volunteers will be needed to deliver these Games. 

In addition to this MUN is also going to be welcome 1000s of international students between now and Fall of 2025. Given these numbers we are looking at a whopping 5000-10000 increase in the population in St John’s. This would have a severe impact on the housing crisis.

MUN is going to shutdown its student residence which means all the students living in dorms will now be competing in the market, with other citizens, tourists, new international students, immigrants and more importantly Canada game participants. Housing is already unaffordable in St John’s with prices gone up 20-40% in the last 3 years. This would create a “housing hell” in Summer of 2025. 

Occurrence of Canada games is a matter of pride for us Newfoundlanders and is a matter not under our control. However what is under our control is taking in of new immigrants and international students. 

We propose, that MUN puts a temporary halt on intake of international students until 2026, when more housing is available and the government can ensure that there is enough housing and accommodations available for new comers. This is better for both incoming new comers as well as the residents of Newfoundland.