Thank you for the question.
The amendment in question did not propose to replace in-person ceremonies. I want to be very clear about that. The proposal is to give the applicant a choice, either to take the oath as required at an in-person ceremony, as is currently the case, or to take the oath through technology and then participate in a ceremony later. This reduces processing times by up to three months. At any time, under this proposal, the applicant may participate in an in-person ceremony.
It's also true that, during the pandemic, the department set up virtual ceremonies. At another committee meeting, I pointed out in my testimony that this has allowed the department to reach a record number of citizenship awards. In the past year, we've granted citizenship to over 374,000 applicants. This was possible because we had the flexibility to offer virtual ceremonies. People were very happy to be able to become Canadian citizens despite the constraints that prevented us from doing more in-person ceremonies.
We continue to offer in-person ceremonies as well as virtual ceremonies, which allow us not only to continue to reduce backlogs and processing times, but also to welcome more Canadian citizens more quickly.
Thank you.