The government returned to a lottery system after last year's first-come, first-served online system was plagued by problems. The lottery system itself replaced a first-in process which saw applicants sprint to get physical documents to processing centres. To resolve the group litigation, the government awarded applicants at least 70 spots, allowing them to sponsor their parents' or grandparents' immigration to Canada. The parent and grandparent sponsorship program launch was delayed last year due to the pandemic. Mendicino has announced that this year's parent and grandparent sponsorship program will have 30,000 spots.

Source: CBC News January 05, 2021 22:00 UTC