Thank you, senator, for your question and for your ongoing work on behalf of those seeking to come to this country.

The story you tell and the thousands of stories that could be told are heartbreaking in so many ways. The fact is, senator, that the circumstances in which we find ourselves with the pandemic have affected not only businesses in Canada and travel around the world, but they have also affected our processes for dealing with applications.

There are two sides to this coin. Local restrictions have caused many international visa application centres to close. That’s part of the problem. The department, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, has kept its processing centres open. They continue to work to try to increase their capacity.

Now, in doing that, they have prioritized certain applications — applications from Canadians and permanent residents returning to Canada, and people who perform or support essential services. They are processing as many as they can. More and more are done virtually, being mindful of security and safety, of course. They are providing more resources for officials to work remotely. They have ramped up efforts to digitize their records and streamline their policies and their processes. There has been some reopening of in-person service centres while keeping health guidelines.

That is cold comfort for those who are still waiting, but the government is doing what it can to try to return the processing to more normal levels.