May 1, 2014—Calgary, AB—

Calgary welcomed 1,164 new Canadians from more than 100 countries over the past month—more than four times the number of people who became Canadian citizens in Calgary in April last year when 284 new citizens were sworn in.

The high number of new citizens welcomed this month in Calgary 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 Canadian 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.

Quick facts

• Since 2006, Canada has enjoyed the highest sustained levels of immigration in Canadian history—an average of a quarter million newcomers each year. Accordingly, the demand for citizenship has increased by 30 percent.
• For new Canadians, the citizenship ceremony marks their formal entry into the Canadian family. A citizenship ceremony is a unique part of Canadian civic life. It is one of the few occasions where we formally reflect on the rights, responsibilities, privileges and benefits of being a Canadian citizen.
• In January, February and March 2014, Canada welcomed more than 75,900 new citizens at 759 ceremonies across Canada. Comparatively, in the first three months of 2013, Canada welcomed 35,320 new Canadians.

Quote

“Our government is proud to welcome more new citizens to the Canadian family. A Canadian citizenship ceremony is a moving and emotional celebration that reaffirms one’s commitment to Canadian values and traditions. The impressive number of individuals participating in these ceremonies and taking on the full responsibility of Canadian citizenship demonstrates that our government’s efforts to improve the citizenship program and decrease wait times are working.”

Chris Alexander, Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister

src:news.gc.ca