"International students make immense cultural and social contributions to Canada".
So families don't make contributions?
IRCC should prioritize family sponsorship besides students can start online classes outside of Canada.
If you read the announcement carefully, most of the
specific measures announced are meant to make it easier for foreign students to study online, with the implication that they will not need to return to Canada to do so.
Specifically: students will be able to count time studying online (while abroad) towards post-grad work permit, and providing a two-stage approval process (which, if I understand correctly, means that they can enroll and start studies from abroad even if they haven't received the final student permit).
That's it in terms of specific measures, except for the vague "priority processing" for those with complete applications - and only for online applications.
Taken together: these measures should be neutral for family class applicants, and possibly positive. The specific measures
reduce the demand for visa offices to urgently produce study permits (including visas), as some students can/will (presumably) remain in their home countries. In part because they know it will qualify for the post-grad work permit and they can begin their course of studies without receiving the final study permit.
Also the implication of saying priority for online applications (i.e. only) means they can be processed more quickly, with staff working remotely. The unstated part of this is that foreign students applying should absolutely
not submit paper applications - and hopefully for family class this means more of the staff and systems to handle paper applications will be free to deal with our applications.
A final note: this is dated July 14, shortly after the announcement that the US would
not be allowing students studying online only to even remain in the USA. So in part this is also a reaffirmation to foreign students studying in Canada that nothing of the sort will happen in Canada - to reassure them. And perhaps a little bit of 'come to Canada to study' trolling re the USA. (As I understand the US announcement in this respect has been reversed, though, just yesterday)
Anyway: don't assume that everything that announces something else is also a 'priority' means family class has been downgraded. They are different programs with different processing requirements. It's not all zero sum. (Doesn't mean I'm happy with how family class are being handled, mind, and I hope they figure something out soon to deal with the backlog)
Frankly apart from the implications for students, I think family class applicants should be reassured here for another reason: there is no sign so far the government is moving against immigration, despite the obvious economic challenges. It doesn't mean that changes to processing are coming soon, but at least no general anti-immigration turn in policies as in some/many other countries right now.