Government instructions leave the door open for the Parents and Grandparents Program to return in 2026

Recent news coverage around the closure of the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) in 2026 does not tell the full story.

While Ministerial Instructions issued by the Canadian government do explicitly state that new application intake to the program will be closed this year, it is worthwhile to note that they do also include the possibility of a new intake as “further instructions are issued”—and that similar instructions have been given at the start of every year for the last four years that the PGP has been active.

While the fate of the PGP this year remains unknown, this article will explore the implications of similarities and differences between current and previous ministerial instructions governing the PGP, and possible implications for the program in 2026.

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Ministerial instructions are official instructions from relevant ministers that dictate how the government will operate its programs and initiatives.

Ministerial instructions stating the closure of new application intake for the PGP have been issued in 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022—all years that the program has operated.

The PGP is different from many other immigration programs in that the ability to make a candidate profile, the issuance of invitations, and application intake to the program only happen once a year, for a set period.

Due to the limited operation of the program, instructions are usually delivered explicitly closing new intake toward the start of each given year. These instructions are usually amended by a second set of instructions later in the year, confirming a new intake under the program.

How do this year’s instructions compare to previous iterations?

Comparing the most recent iterations of the ministerial instructions for the PGP against previous years, we can see three main themes emerge:

Each set of instructions uses substantially similar language to establish that, as of January 1 of the relevant year, no new permanent resident visa applications for parents/grandparents (and no related sponsorship applications) are to be received for processing “until further instructions are issued.”

These instructions also tend to mention applications being carried forward from the previous year for continued processing in the next.

This language is preserved in the latest instructions, and maintains Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC’s) annual pattern of cyclical closing and opening of the PGP.

Previous instructions, including those from January 2024 and January 2025, include explicit conditional language: “Unless a new intake for the [year] calendar year is implemented…” before explaining that only the prior-year cohort will be accepted for processing.

The latest instructions do not present this caveat in the same way—instead, it states that as of January 1, 2026, no new applications will be received for processing until further instructions are issued, while confirming continued acceptance for processing of applications received in 2025.

While this can be seen as a simple change in drafting language, it is perhaps noteworthy that the most recent instructions treat the re-opening of the PGP as a matter of time, rather than of possibility (which prior instructions more closely aligned with).

Still, both versions of the instructions largely serve the same function: to preserve the ability to change the PGP’s operational status with further instructions.

Notably, even with this language change in this year's instructions, a new PGP intake in 2026 is not guaranteed.

Perhaps the most obvious change to the instructions is the drastic decrease in carry-over application processing numbers compared to previous years:

These decreases run parallel to the planned levels of immigration through the PGP this year, which has been cut from 24,500 new permanent admissions in 2025 to just 15,000 in 2026.

Importantly, this drastic decrease does put less pressure on IRCC to open a new intake this year—as the department could reach its desired immigration levels through processing already submitted applications.