My bet is that EE will continue for 2-3 draws, probably with a reduced number of ITAs, something in the range of 2500-3200.
After that, if the crisis persist, IELTS and other exams continue to be interrupted, then I foresee a complete stop of the EE program.
Not because Canada cannot receive these immigrants (they can, and I'll explain why I believe that below), but because it's not Canada's best interest to invite candidates below 450, if they can simply wait 2-3 months for the crisis to slow down, and then continue to have a influx of more capable and skilled candidates. More than ever, Canada will need highly skilled people to rebuild businesses.
I've been hearing a lot in this forum about that idea that Canada will stop immigration because they will be in recession (well, the entire world will be, for sure).
Yet, what people might be missing here is the fact that Canada does not invite immigrants to sustain economical growth *today*. They are totally fine right now. The country will rely on immigrants to sustain economical growth 20 years from now, because Canadians, per se, are nor having kids.
Moreover, if they are indeed in recession, they will need more than ever a positive influx of money in the country. Consider that after that crisis is over, the average Canadian will probably have had run out of savings. The economy will need people with money in their pockets to help sustain the Canadian market during the recovery period. I'm not saying immigrants will recover the economy, but they might provide the minimum fuel necessary to sustain business such as Canadian Tire, IKEA, local car dealers, etc to avoid them to file for bankruptcy. Because during the recession period, be sure most Canadians won't buy a new car or replace their furniture. Newcomers will.
Every immigrant from the FSW program brings to Canada a lot of savings from their countries. Most of them sell their car(s), houses, furnitures (on top of the minimum required fund). That will help inject dollars in the Canadian economy, to sustain the survival of retail, insurance and manufacturing sectors, generating jobs.
Even more importantly, when we think about economical recovery, the sector that will probably recover the fastest will be IT, simply because they're less dependant on local demands, but instead, global ones. And we know that IT is among the ones (if not the most) popular NOC codes in the EE program.