August 2009 - Sponsorship Application for Parents

I have a question on sponsoring my parents (late 50's) and my younger sibling (less than 22 y/o, dependent to my parents). I submitted their papers on August 20, 2009. During that year (2009), CIC said that the sponsorship will take a total of 3 years (including processing time in the Philippines). However, in 2011, total processing time was changed to 7 years. I chatted with a CIC representative and said that it will no longer be 3 years but it will be 7 years now. I think this is not fair since this is the only time that my immediate family and I can get together and they are not getting any younger.

1 - If it's really 7 years, is there a way that I can speed up the processing?
2 - Should I let my brother find a job in the Philippines since it's really a waste of time waiting? Or should I wait a little bit more?
3 - Did anyone of you get a letter from CIC that they started processing any 2009 applications?

Thanks for your feedbacks...