It's at least progress that the minister is talking about the backlog as a real problem and committing to deal with it.
I think it's too early to know what the eventual timeline will be, but at least they have mentioned even indirectly through the memo that there won't be all program draws for a while. At least you know where you stand in the short term even if it's not good news.
It's also good that he made a point to reinforce the notion that people from all streams should be given equal treatment, i watched the stream afterwards and he sort of brought it up to elucidate his position on that.
That at least bodes well for future draws whenever they commence.