The backlog grew because, prior to 2012, there were no limits on the number of new applications that could be submitted,” department spokeswoman Remi Lariviere told The Huffington Post Canada in an email.
“As a result, we received more applications annually than we could process given the number of spaces in the immigration plan.”
Lariviere explained there are more than 45,000 refugees from all parts of the world who are currently waiting for their applications to be processed by Canadian officials.
“Some have been waiting for years,” she said.
“Our goal is to eliminate the backlog by 2019 and reduce wait times for new applications to about 12 months.”