With pleasure. Let me begin by saying that our government believes loved ones should be together during the course of the pandemic. We have taken great steps and made great strides to achieving that goal by prioritizing spousal sponsorship applications.
As you pointed out in your question, we made a commitment to prioritize the processing of 50,000 spousal applications by the end of last year. We delivered on that promise.
Going forward, by investing in the additional resources, including the 62 new jobs that we created in Nova Scotia, by taking more of our processes and going online, and by creating policy flexibility that not only allows those who wish to come to Canada and establish themselves here on a permanent basis but also allows them to be with their loved ones during the pandemic, through the corridor of the COVID travel exemptions—where we have processed over 55,000 decisions over the last number of months—we are living up to that value of reuniting families, despite all of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
We have made great progress. We know there is still work to do. There are always cases that we're hearing about, and as is always the case, our heart goes out to them. However, we work with you and with all members to try to resolve them as quickly as we can, and this year will be a banner year for reuniting families.