Thank you.
The pandemic caused a lot of problems. When we shut down the borders, we continued accepting applications, and applications were backloged more than normal. We were also responding to the situations in Afghanistan and Ukraine. The number of applications also rose because Canada is a very popular destination.
We're making investments to expedite application processing.
In the fall economic statement last year, there was $85 million. We're now in the process of hiring 1,250. We've almost completed that hiring blitz, and we've seen the productivity go up. We relaxed a whole suite of policies, from an administrative point of view, and have embraced technology to speed it up.
Having a lack of limits in the TR to PR program for francophone newcomers creates an opportunity for those who are already here to stay. We continue to work with different countries with large francophone populations, in order to try to spread information about this.
I'm trying to go as fast as I can, because I sense I'm almost out of time. We're going to continue to make what investments we can to process more cases.
Next spring, we'll be able to select candidates in the express entry system who have the necessary language skills and who intend to travel to a particular region or the regions that have major labour shortages. We'll have that new flexibility to increase the number of francophone newcomers starting in the spring of 2023.