May 1, 2014—Scarborough (Toronto), ON—More than 3,200 new citizens from approximately 135 countries were welcomed to Canada in Scarborough over the past month—more than double the number of individuals who became citizens in Scarborough in April 2013.
The continually high number of new citizens welcomed in Scarborough demonstrates how the government is working to make the citizenship program more efficient, helping more people realize their dream of becoming Canadian sooner. The government’s proposed changes in Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, will further reduce wait times by streamlining the decision-making process for citizenship. It is expected that those changes will bring the average processing time for citizenship applications down to under one year and that the current backlog will be reduced by more than 80 percent by 2015-2016.
Alexis Pavlich
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-954-1064
Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada’s economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.
