I was at the Edmonton CIC office today on business, for a non-citizenship related matter. There were people being interviewed but there did not appear to be any kind of testing going on. People seemed to have individual appointments, and were led straight from the area outside the front entrance (where the gloomy security guard lady sits) to their interviews by the officer assigned to them. Some were being interviewed at the little glass windows, others behind closed doors. Does anyone know what this may have been all about? I do know it was citizenship related. None of interviewees were old enough to be exempt from the test requirement.
Later in the day I got to chat with a person who used to be a citizenship officer until relatively recently at the Edmonton CIC office. He readily acknowledged that the crazy numbers of RQs issued created terrible backlogs in Edmonton, a situation that was exacerbated by the lack of a CJ back in 2012 (as all RQs had to be referred to a CJ for a hearing).
He also confirmed that "straightforward" cases were being reviewed by Level 1 officers, and that there was a push to get those processed on a relative priority basis. More complicated cases were given to Level 2 officers. When I was interviewed back in September I did notice a label on the folder that contained my file that said "Level 2". I guess that explains why it took 25 months for me to even get scheduled for a test, and only after the CIC call centre had sent a "WTF" note to the local office after 24 months.
I don't know what makes a file "Level 2". In my case, I used pre-PR time, and had some 15 short trips for a total of 120 days, some to obvious tourist destinations in the US, and others to various places in Asia and Europe where I have family. Part of the confusion may have been that for many of my intercontinental trips I drove to, and flew out of a major US airport that was relatively close to my Canadian place of residence in order to save a bundle.
Hell, that last part should qualify me for a honorary Canadian citizenship ;D