Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair, I will let my colleague, Nicole Giles, answer this question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question. The new measures announced are complementary to the measures introduced by our partners in other countries. Great Britain decided to do something because of its special history with Hong Kong. In Canada, we have created new pathways to facilitate thei

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair, I would like to say that those new measures are complementary to others that already exist within Canada's immigration system. However, those measures are intended for students and diplomats, such as those who recently completed their post-secondary studies. So there

Citizenship and Immigration committee  These measures were designed and developed by the government to look at the situation in Hong Kong. As we were looking at what was available from our allies and what was happening on the ground, certainly we were looking at the specific situation in Hong Kong, as opposed to past

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a number of questions. I will try to answer them. First, all the measures I highlighted are available to Hong Kong residents. However, the new measures are intended for young Hong Kong residents.Those two measures are aimed only at them. As th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I apologize.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do have some information comparing it to the same period last year. For example, the number of applications we received, as opposed to processed, up until November 2020 had increased quite a bit. In terms of comparing that to the same period in 2019, there was almost a doublef

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That was specifically for Hong Kong.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would qualify, Madam Chair, that the 10,000 invitations that were issued earlier this year were invitations to apply, as opposed to approvals of applications. I don't have the information currently in terms of how many of those would have been to those applying or sponsoring so

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe our consul general has stated in other forums that there has been continuous planning under way at the mission since late 2020 for such an occasion. We are not currently seeing evidence of a mass exodus or an emergency situation, but contingency planning is in place.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll begin with the first part of the question, regarding the pathways that are available, particularly for those in Hong Kong. I would add the layer of who can currently travel under the existing COVID-19 travel restrictions, because that is an important consideration as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My apologies, Madam Chair, and my apologies to the interpreters as well. This would include those new measures that I spoke about earlier in my remarks. Madam Chair, the measures announced by the government in November expand opportunities for those who wish to leave Hong Kong,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question. Indeed, it certainly was our hope to have it open by the end of last year. Due to some technical difficulties, as well as certainly other priorities, such as COVID-19 measures, we have been quite busy over the last few months. We hope to

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would certainly think weeks rather than months.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair, the information I have on that is as of November 30, 2020. As of that date, the number of valid study permit holders in Canada was 5,250. The number of work permit holders was 3,450, or 7,650 unique individuals. I should qualify that we don't know for sure that these