Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s recent announcement that it’s accepting 10,000 sponsorship applications under the Parent and Grandparents Program (PGP) comes with an important caveat.

Due to persistent backlog, invitations will only be sent to the 17,860 potential sponsors who submitted an interest-to-sponsor application back in 2020.

While good news for some, it means yet another cycle of uncertainty for thousands of families who have waited years for the PGP to finally reopen.

Migrant families seek permanent reunification for reasons other than a desire to live with their parents and grandparents in the same country. Those reasons include a need for child-care support and a desire to care for their older family members as they age.

As international conventions dictate, families have a right to be together.

Grandparents have been part of Canada’s formal “family class” pathway since 1976, but current policy favours spouses and dependent children. This makes reunification for extended family members difficult.

Grandparent admissions through the PGP have comprised around 25 per cent of total family class admissions for the past 10 years.

Unlike other family class categories, there is a predetermined cap on........

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