City TV News: Hong Kong PR pathway applicants face more than 10-year wait as program nears end

When the federal government launched the permanent residence pathways for Hong Kong residents, it was described as a faster route for eligible Hong Kong nationals already in Canada to become permanent residents.

Five years later, the Hong Kong pathway is set to close Aug. 31, while tens of thousands of applicants are still waiting.

For applicants like Roger Yeung, the wait is no longer just about immigration paperwork. It is affecting careers, education, and the ability to plan a future in Canada.

Roger Yeung has been living in Vancouver since April 2023. He applied for permanent residence under the Hong Kong pathway in October 2024, but says there has been no progress.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan says the wait is unacceptable.

Kwan says the federal government originally promised expedited processing for Hong Kongers under the lifeboat program, and that the process appeared to work in the first year.

“The government, in this first year of implementation of the Lifeboat Stream A, Stream B program, they did expedite the process,” Kwan said.

“But then, over the years, we started to notice that the government was slowing down in the processing.”

Kwan says the problem grew after Hong Kong pathway applications were grouped under the Humanitarian and Compassionate and Other category.

She said that category also includes other urgent commitments, including Ukraine and Sudan, leaving Hong Kong applicants competing for limited space.

“For Hong Kongers, there are over 33,000 applications waiting in the backlog, and that’s just for Hong Kongers,” Kwan said.

“If you add in Ukraine and Sudan, you can just imagine how lengthy the wait is.”

To clear the backlog, Kwan says the federal government should change the Immigration Levels Plan quota and allocate enough spaces to process existing applications. She also called on Ottawa to restore immigration staffing levels.

“Rebuild the trust. Honour what you promised Hong Kongers, and deliver on the program. Change the quota now,” Kwan said.

*Click image or link to watch or read the news story - https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/07/15/canada-hong-kong-pr-pathway-applicants-wait/

RED FM: IRCC pauses new parents and grandparents sponsorship applications

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has paused new applications and invitations under the Parents and Grandparents Program, known as PGP, until further notice.

The federal government says the pause is aimed at managing existing backlogs and improving processing times. About 60,500 permanent residence applications are already being processed, while the government plans to admit up to 15,000 applicants through the program in 2026.

The PGP has been facing high demand for years, with applications selected from a 2020 pool of more than 200,000 expressions of interest. The number of people hoping to bring parents and grandparents to Canada has continued to exceed available spaces.

Under Canada’s 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, annual admissions through the program have been reduced from 21,500 to 15,000.

The decision has drawn criticism from opposition politicians and immigration advocates. NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan says the pause could further delay family reunification and leave some families waiting for years.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://redfm.ca/en-ca/calgary/news-articles/ircc-pauses-new-parents-and-grandparents-sponsorship-applications

Toronto Star: Liberals won’t say if foreign homebuyer ban will be extended as renewal window narrows

OTTAWA — The Liberal government has yet to say whether it plans to extend Canada’s ban on foreign homebuyers, even as internal briefing notes warned time is running short to renew the policy through the existing regulatory process before the ban expires.

If the government does nothing, Canada’s ban, which first came into force in 2023, will sunset automatically on Jan. 1, 2027. The ban currently prevents anyone who is not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident from purchasing a home in any urban area in the country.

Housing Minister Gregor Robertson was not available for an interview with the Star, but has previously said the government is examining approaches used in other countries, particularly Australia, where a foreign-buyer ban includes exemptions for new homes and vacant land.

NDP housing critic MP Jenny Kwan said the government’s inaction is a clear indicator it is going to let the ban expire. 

“If your inclination is to move forward with it then you have to actually plan for that deadline,” she said. 

Kwan said even if foreign buyers were only focused on luxury units, that has a trickle-down impact and the ban should be extended. 

“There are a whole variety of different measures that the government can take to ensure first-time home buyers have a level playing field for them to get access to housing and one of those measures is to extend the foreign home-ownership ban,” she said. 

Conservative housing critic MP Scott Aitchison said the market needs certainty the Liberals are failing to provide, but said his party has always viewed the ban as nothing more than political scapegoating. 

“I don’t think that foreign buyers were really driving prices up. It was really more government charges, fees, and taxes in those high-priced markets,” he said.  He said the ban may be popular, but that doesn’t make it good policy. 

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/liberals-wont-say-if-foreign-homebuyer-ban-will-be-extended-as-renewal-window-narrows/article_8ad12efe-67cb-4985-8c0f-d9c6837dfd97.html

Now Toronto: ‘Girls aren’t being told what pain isn’t normal’: B.C. teen takes endometriosis fight to Parliament

• Elize Nocente launched a parliamentary petition urging governments to introduce mandatory endometriosis education in Canadian schools.
• Nocente says better education would help young people recognize when period pain is not normal and could help close the years-long diagnosis gap for endometriosis.
• The petition calls for funding for a national advisory board to develop educational standards, resources and public awareness campaigns about the disease.
• With more than 500 signatures, it is eligible to be presented in the House of Commons by Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan after the signature period closes on Oct. 14.
• She says youth should play an active role in politics and advocacy because they understand the issues affecting their generation firsthand.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://nowtoronto.com/news/bc-teen-endometriosis-parliament-petition-school-education/

Globe & Mail: Immigration department pauses applications to sponsor parents, grandparents to settle in Canada

The federal immigration department is facing calls to rethink a key family reunification program after it paused applications to sponsor grandparents and parents to settle in Canada as permanent residents, leaving thousands waiting years for their loved ones to join them.

On Wednesday, IRCC announced on its website that it will not accept any new formal expressions of interest to sponsor parents and grandparents to settle in Canada until further notice. It said it would also pause invitations to potential sponsors to apply to bring their parents and grandparents here to settle.

In a statement, Taous Ait, a spokesperson for immigration minister Lena Metlege Diab said the measures are “part of broader efforts to restore balance across immigration programs and support timely processing, while maintaining public confidence in Canada’s immigration system.”

She said decisions to open or pause new intakes to the program follow assessments of the number of people in “its inventory and application inventory, each year.”

“IRCC will continue processing up to 15,000 individuals this year who have already applied, in line with our Immigration Levels Plan,” she added.

The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) is a lottery-like pathway to permanent residence for family members who are foreign nationals. Demand to settle here under the program has far outstripped the number of permanent residence spots available under the government’s immigration targets.

In the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, published in last year’s budget, the government cut its target for new permanent residents under the parents and grandparents program to 15,000 in each of the three years.

In the previous 2025-2027 plan, its target was to admit 21,500 under the program this year.

Ottawa has allowed parents and grandparents living overseas to join family here for years. But in 2020, IRCC established a system creating a pool of expressions of interest-to-sponsor parents and grandparents. There were more than 200,000 responses in 2020. IRCC invited applications to settle here from this pool in subsequent years.

IRCC has previously been criticized for not opening up the pool to allow other immigrants to bring their parents and grandparents to join them permanently.

In a September, 2025 briefing note prepared for Liberal ministers at Question Period about 54,000 expressions of interest-to-sponsor remained from the 2020 pool that year. Ms. Ait said 60,500 applications for permanent residence under the program are in progress.

But NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the system, which includes windows to formally apply, needed to be changed, including “setting standards to ensure that families are reunited in a reasonable period of time.”

The “government has shamefully once again suspended new intakes to the Parent/Grandparent sponsorship program,” she said in a statement.

“It has remained closed since 2020, shattering dreams of family reunification for thousands of Canadians and permanent residents. Families who have been eagerly waiting for the application system to reopen, are once again being told by the Liberals that they are out of luck. It is a slap in the face of families who has waited so long to reunite with their loved ones.”

“At this rate, it will take decades to clear the backlog of those who submitted their interest to sponsor their parents or grandparents,” she said. “Families cannot afford to wait decades to be reunited with their parents and grandparents.”

In order to sponsor parents and grandparents, people living in Canada must show that they have a certain level of income. They must also commit to financially supporting their parents and grandparents. Although those sponsored gain permanent residence, they cannot use government social-assistance programs. However, they can access health care.

*Click link to read the full news story - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-immigration-department-pauses-applications-to-sponsor-parents/

The Tyee: A Vancouver Teen’s Mission to Bring Endometriosis Education to Schools

A Vancouver teenager is asking the federal government to improve public education about endometriosis, a condition that affects roughly one in 10 people assigned female at birth, or two million Canadians.

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Endometriosis occurs when cells that resemble the lining of the uterus grow outside of the uterus on surrounding organs, such as the bladder, bowel or ovaries. The condition can cause debilitating pain.

Because this pain is often connected to a menstrual cycle, people with endometriosis often have their experience minimized by medical professionals, says 16-year-old Elize Nocente.

“You’re told that period pain is normal and not to be scared,” Nocente told The Tyee. “Some discomfort and pain is normal, but when it gets to the point where some girls can’t even get out of bed because they’re in so much pain, then that’s not normal at all.”

n extreme cases, endometriosis can cause kidney failure, bowel obstruction, painful bowel movements and blood in stool and urine. About 90 per cent of people with symptoms experience severe cramps and 30 per cent of people with endometriosis have trouble conceiving.

When teenagers are told extreme pain is normal it creates a cycle of shame, where they’re suffering and also believe something is wrong with them because they can’t cope as well as their peers, Nocente said.

“People don’t really care about girls receiving proper education about their own bodies,” she said. “They kind of assume that they already know, but really it’s not a given.”

To change this, Nocente is asking the federal government to fund a national advisory board to develop an evidence-based endometriosis lesson plan, and to work with the provinces and territories to introduce the lesson plan into age-appropriate classrooms.

She’s making the request in the form of a federal e-petition, which has received over 600 signatures already. If those signatures are all deemed valid, Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver East, will present the petition in Parliament after the petition closes on Oct. 14, 2026.

Nocente said education is the best way to make societal change.

*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://thetyee.ca/News/2026/07/16/Vancouver-Teen-Mission-Endometriosis-Education/