On August 17, at Canada Place Edmonton, an announcement was made on family reunion by Minister Sohi, MP for Edmonton MillWoods, and MP Boissonnault, MP for Edmonton Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship regarding improvements to the family reunification process. The age of dependent increased from under 19 to under 22, intake increased from 5,000 to 20,000 in 2019 for parent and grandparent applications, an Interest to Sponsor Form introduced online which potential sponsors will fill to be invited to sponsor parents, a decision supported by the Conservative Party of Canada, the official opposition.
Michelle Rempel, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, responded to the decision to scrap the lottery system and modify the application for the Parent and Grandparent Sponsorship Program, “Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives are pleased that the Liberals have finally listened to our calls to scrap the family reunification lottery, given that these changes should never have been introduced in the first place”. MP Rempel added, “Over the past few years, I have heard from dozens of people who felt like they had lost hope that they would ever be able to bring their parents or grandparents to Canada”.
