September 5, 2014—MONTRÉAL, QC—This week, Montréal welcomed approximately 3,500 new Canadian citizens from more than 70 countries.
Ceremonies like these demonstrate how the government is working to make the citizenship program more efficient, helping more people realize their dream of becoming Canadian sooner. Recent changes to the Citizenship Act, which received Royal Assent on June 19, 2014, will allow for further improvements to the efficiency of the citizenship program. The new streamlined decision-making process and other changes to the Citizenship Act are expected to bring the processing time for citizenship applications down to under one year and reduce the citizenship application backlog by more than 80 percent by 2015-2016.
“Our government is proud to welcome these new citizens to the Canadian family. The impressive number of individuals participating in these ceremonies, and embracing the rights, responsibilities and privileges that come with Canadian citizenship, demonstrates that our government’s citizenship program reforms are working.”
Chris Alexander, Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister
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.
