From what I heard from lawyers and consultants, biometric is for record not for security or criminality. They already have fingerprints from RCMP check but this collection is just intended for keeping person on record in order to confirm that it is same person whom they issued previous permit of any kind. They decided biometric collections for all kind of visa so that when one apply for PR or even citizenship they know it is the same person whom they issued study permit before N number of years. They can prevent immigration frauds and keep track of everybody. Even those people who illegally cross border to/from states will held accountable after their biometric on record.
Biometric was handled by Clearview AI, any kind of biometric datas like fingerprint, facial recognition, picture available on public forums, social media is their business. They are supposed to give these data access only to law enforcement agencies in USA and Canada but because of some sort of privacy breach accusations, it is under investigation. So we don't know when, how and if this biometric will start. We dont even know if biometric is only closed because of Covid19 situation. This is not conspiracy theory, but guess of some experienced people. From my understanding investigation is going on only for facial recognition but they cant deal with any biometric data collection now. Let us all hope that they will waive biometric requirements at least for now.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/clearview-ai-stops-facial-recognition-in-canada-1.5639380
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/07/06/clearview-ai-to-pull-out-of-canada-and-stop-working-with-rcmp-amid-privacy-investigation.html