In contrast (local office Mississauga rather than Toronto, but for in-person events, test, interview, and oath, we had itinerant services more locally, a 1000k or so from Mississauga), the published processing time for ROUTINELY processed applications, when I applied, was 24 months. BUT I took the oath barely a few days more than eight months from when my application arrived at CPC-Sydney by courier. Some persons sitting next to me at the oath ceremony had applied barely six months before. But there were indeed others at my oath ceremony for whom the process took two years and there were many in multiple forums complaining their own timeline well exceeded two years, with scores enduring timelines, then, longer than three years.
Timelines for individual applications vary very widely even during the most normal and best of times. In times like this, all bets are off.
While there APPEAR to be patterns for some local offices, the source of this information is very limited, a very small sample with little or no indication the sample is at all representative. So that sort of information is especially unreliable.
Beyond the obvious, that this year's situation will result in significantly longer processing times (for virtually everything), proffered estimates, even in big ballpark ranges, are no more than wild guesses. Anyone claiming to know how this is going to shake out in the coming months and year is NOT to be trusted.
