Last Updated On 30 July 2026, 11:30 AM EDT (Toronto Time)
Prime Minister Mark Carney publicly admitted he had no knowledge of an ongoing hunger strike by international students in Calgary when he was asked whether his government is prepared to deport them.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, standing beside him at a press conference in Red Deer on July 29, 2026, gave a more direct answer.
Smith said that international students whose visas have expired and who have not secured permanent residency “need to go home.”
The exchange happened during a media availability tied to an upcoming Alberta referendum on immigration that will put nine questions to voters on October 19, 2026.
A reporter from Juno News asked Carney directly whether he was prepared to deport the Portage College graduates who have been staging a hunger strike in Calgary to protest mass post-graduation work permit refusals issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada this summer.
Carney responded that he was not familiar with the specific case but acknowledged that a process exists for individuals who do not have authorization to remain in Canada and who do not have a right to claim asylum.
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What Carney Said About Immigration Control
Before the Portage College question came up, Carney used the press conference to make broader claims about his government’s track record on immigration since taking office roughly 16 months ago, building on themes from the First Ministers’ Meeting held in Charlottetown on July 23.
He stated that his government has “taken back control” of immigration after inheriting a system where the levels of foreign students, temporary workers, and asylum seekers had grown far beyond what was planned.
According to Carney, the flow of asylum seekers into Canada is now down by roughly one-third compared to the period before his government took power.
He said temporary foreign workers are down by approximately half, and the number of new international students arriving in Canada has dropped by about two-thirds.
Those reductions align broadly with the federal government’s 2026 Immigration Departmental Plan, which projects new temporary resident arrivals of 385,000 for 2026, representing a 43% reduction from the 2025 level of 673,650.
Carney argued that restoring control over the numbers has created room for a policy discussion that was not possible when arrivals were overshooting targets by half a million to a million people in any given period.
He framed the current moment as an opportunity for first ministers and premiers to discuss how to select economic migrants based on the skills that provinces actually need, a point that connects directly to the proposed Express Entry overhaul currently under public consultation.
Mark Carney Unfamiliar With The Portage College Crisis
The Juno News reporter, identified as Alexa, asked a pointed question about whether the Prime Minister was prepared to deport the students of Portage College who are on a hunger strike to stay in Canada despite having no permit to remain.
Carney said he was not familiar with the details of the case.
He acknowledged that processes exist for handling individuals who are in Canada without authorization and who do not have a valid asylum claim, and he said those processes need to be followed.
The students at the centre of this crisis are mostly graduates of non-credit continuing education programs delivered by the Canadian Institute of Osteopathic Therapy in Calgary under a partnership with Portage College.
Starting in late June 2026, IRCC began issuing refusal letters stating that their programs were classified as non-credit and therefore did not meet the eligibility criteria for a post-graduation work permit under regulation R205(c)(ii).
The department updated its PGWP eligibility webpage on June 24, 2026, to explicitly state that non-credit programs, with the exception of certain flight school programs, do not qualify for a PGWP.
IRCC maintains that this was a clarification of an existing rule rather than a new policy change, but affected graduates say they enrolled and completed their programs long before the clarification appeared online.
An estimated 480 graduates from Portage College partner-delivered programs have received refusals, with community organizers claiming that up to 1,500 graduates in Calgary may be affected.
Roughly 1,000 former students have been protesting outside IRCC offices in Calgary, and five to six graduates have escalated the protests into a round-the-clock hunger strike demanding that IRCC review their rejected applications.
Danielle Smith Tells Students Without Status To Go Home
The same reporter also asked Alberta Premier Danielle Smith whether she was prepared to start decertifying diploma mills in the province.
Smith pushed back on the framing of the question, saying she would not describe Portage College as a diploma mill.
She acknowledged that unscrupulous operators have set up diploma-granting programs in the past that took advantage of students, and she suggested that Portage College may have “overstated the pathway to permanent residency” for its international graduates.
Smith then stated plainly that if students come to Canada on an international student visa and that visa expires without them obtaining permanent residency, they need to leave the country.
At the same time, she qualified that statement by noting that if those students have skills that Alberta needs, the province should be positioned to offer them a pathway to permanent residency.
Alberta Has 6,400 PNP Spots Against 40,000 Applicants
Smith used the press conference to draw attention to a major structural gap in how Canada allocates provincial nominee program spots.
She said Alberta currently has approximately 6,400 spots available through its provincial nominee program for permanent residency.
Against that allocation, roughly 40,000 people have applied to the province for permanent residency, creating a gap that leaves tens of thousands of temporary residents without a clear pathway from their work permit to permanent status.
Smith compared Alberta’s allocation unfavourably with Quebec, which is able to select approximately 45,000 of its permanent residents through a separate program governed by the Canada-Quebec Accord.
She argued that Alberta needs significantly more autonomy to make its own immigration decisions and that a greater allocation would allow the province to address the pressures that are generating headlines across the country.
If the province were able to select more of its own nominees, Smith suggested, it could create clearer pathways for graduates whose programs lead to jobs that cannot be filled by Alberta workers, reducing the kind of uncertainty that has pushed the Portage College graduates to protest.
What This Means For International Students In Canada
The exchange in Red Deer highlights a widening gap between the pace of federal immigration enforcement and the reality that many international students face on the ground in 2026.
Carney’s admission that he was unaware of the hunger strike is notable because the Portage College PGWP refusals have been a developing story for weeks, covered across Canadian media outlets and generating a Change.org petition calling on IRCC to halt all refusals and reopen previously denied files.
Smith’s willingness to publicly state that students without status should leave Canada puts her in the position of giving a harder answer than the Prime Minister himself was prepared to offer at the same event.
The broader backdrop includes the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, which holds permanent resident admissions at 380,000 annually and projects a sharp reduction in temporary residents entering the country.
International student arrivals have plunged dramatically since the study permit cap was introduced in 2024, with new arrivals falling by as much as 97% in certain months compared to the peak.
The federal government’s Bill C-12 asylum reforms, which became law in March 2026, have also expanded the government’s enforcement powers over individuals whose immigration status has lapsed.
For graduates who received PGWP refusals, the options are narrowing as their temporary status runs out and Express Entry draw volumes slow for the second half of 2026.
The Alberta Referendum Adds Another Layer Of Pressure
The press conference in Red Deer was triggered by questions about Alberta’s upcoming October 19 referendum, which will ask voters nine questions on immigration and constitutional reform.
The first question asks whether Albertans support the provincial government taking increased control over immigration to decrease levels, prioritize economic migration, and give Alberta residents first priority on new jobs.
Additional questions, detailed on the Alberta Referendum 2026 government website, address whether the province should charge temporary residents for health care and education services and whether temporary residents should need to establish 12 months of Alberta residency before qualifying for provincial benefits.
The referendum results will be non-binding, but a strong vote in favour of provincial control would give Smith significant political leverage in negotiations with Ottawa over how PNP allocations and immigration authority are distributed.
For the roughly 1,500 Portage College graduates caught in the PGWP refusal wave, the referendum represents an additional layer of uncertainty about whether Alberta will become a more or less welcoming destination for international graduates in the years ahead.
What Affected Portage College Graduates Should Do Now
Portage College has stated on its official PGWP updates page that it has no involvement in the review, assessment, or determination of individual immigration applications and cannot reverse IRCC’s PGWP decisions.
The college stopped issuing letters of support on July 15, 2026, after receiving legal advice that such letters would not be relevant to IRCC’s assessment of PGWP applications.
Affected graduates should retain all original documents, including their Letter of Acceptance, transcripts, tuition invoices, and any correspondence from Portage College or its partner institutions.
Immigration professionals reviewing files have noted that not all Portage College graduates are in the same position, as eligibility may vary depending on whether the program was delivered through the main campus, through the CIOT Calgary partnership, or through another partner site.
Two students who completed programs with the same diploma name may receive entirely different decisions depending on the credit classification of their specific program stream.
The press conference in Red Deer captured two distinct approaches to the same crisis unfolding in Calgary.
Carney offered process and distance, while Smith offered directness and a conditional pathway.
Neither answer provides immediate relief for the graduates whose post-graduation work permits have been refused.
What happens next depends on whether IRCC reviews the refusals, whether affected students pursue legal remedies, and whether the federal and provincial governments reach an agreement on expanding Alberta’s PNP allocation before the October referendum.
For now, the hunger strike outside IRCC’s Calgary offices continues, and the students at the centre of this dispute remain in legal limbo.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Did Mark Carney say he would deport the Portage College students?
Carney did not directly say he would deport them. He said he was not familiar with the specific case but acknowledged that a process exists for people who are in Canada without authorization and who do not qualify for asylum and that this process needs to be followed.
What exactly did Danielle Smith say about the students?
Smith said international students whose visas have expired and who have not obtained permanent residency need to leave Canada. She also said Portage College is not a diploma mill but may have overstated the pathway to permanent residency for its graduates. She added that if those students have skills Alberta needs, the province should be able to offer them a PR pathway through an expanded provincial nominee program.
How many students are affected by the PGWP refusals at Portage College?
Immigration professionals estimate that at least 480 graduates of Portage College partner-delivered programs have received formal PGWP refusals, with community organizers claiming up to 1,500 may be affected across Calgary and Edmonton.
Why are these PGWP applications being refused?
IRCC is classifying the affected programs as non-credit, which disqualifies them from PGWP eligibility under regulation R205(c)(ii). The department updated its PGWP eligibility webpage on June 24, 2026, to explicitly state this, though IRCC maintains the rule itself has not changed. Affected students say they enrolled and completed their programs before the clarification appeared and were led to believe they would qualify.
What is the Alberta immigration referendum about?
Alberta will hold a non-binding referendum on October 19, 2026, asking voters nine questions on immigration control, services for temporary residents, and constitutional reform. The first question asks whether Albertans support the provincial government taking increased control over immigration levels and prioritizing economic migration.
Fact-Checked: All statements attributed to the Prime Minister and the Premier of Alberta in this article are sourced from the joint press conference held in Red Deer, Alberta, on July 29, 2026. Background details have been verified against official IRCC and Portage College communications published through July 2026.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or immigration advice. Consult a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant or licensed immigration lawyer for guidance specific to your situation.
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