Thank you, Madam Chair. It's always good to be back before you colleagues.
I would like to acknowledge that I am joining you from the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation.
Colleagues, the past months have seen unprecedented challenges and change in Canada's immigration system. Immigration speaks to who we were, who we are and who we hope to be, and where we're choosing to grow right now. That's why last October I was so proud to unveil our 2021 to 2023 immigration levels plan, an ambitious and responsible plan to welcome 401,000 new permanent residents this year.
Over the past number of months, despite all of the challenges that have come our way, we've shown that we're delivering on our plan. While implementing strong border measures to protect the health and safety of Canadians, we created pathways to allow families, essential workers, international students and others to continue to come to Canada. We conducted the largest draw in the history of our express entry system, inviting some 27,000 people who are already here and hard at work to apply for permanent residency.
We launched the guardian angels program, recognizing the incredible contributions of asylum seekers in our hospitals and long-term care homes, and as of May 1, I'm very pleased to report that we've received over 3,800 applications.
We've taken our citizenship processes online, welcoming over 60,000 Canadians at some 10,000 virtual ceremonies, and we've recently become the first country in the world to offer citizenship testing online. We've created pathways to help young Hong Kongers as they cast their eyes abroad to choose Canada. We've made major investments to help speed up processing, and we're becoming more efficient, including through hiring 62 new staff at our office in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
We've also shown compassion in upholding human rights by adjusting policies, including for the survivors of Daesh, which will help more Yazidi families reunite with their loved ones through our adjustment of the parameters of the definition of family. We've offered permanent residency to the families of the victims of flights PS752 and ET302. While those tragedies may have taken place far from our shores, they were also Canadian tragedies, and that's why it is important that we took those steps to give justice to the families.
Finally, we announced the creation of a pathway to permanent residency for up to 90,000 essential workers and recent international graduates. Their status may be temporary, but their contributions are lasting.
It is against the backdrop of this significant progress that I am here to discuss today IRCC supplementary estimates (A).
Madam Chair, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s supplementary estimates (A) include only a re‑profiled amount of $24.5M—