This similar article has some an interesting additional detail.
https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/572334/immigration-certificats-de-selection-du-quebec.
«En revanche, 9682 personnes ont été accueillies au Québec en vertu du programme de regroupement familial, qui est contrôlé par Ottawa. Québec en escomptait entre 8900 et 9400.» ("On the other hand, 9,682 people were received in Quebec under the family reunification program, which is controlled by Ottawa. Quebec expected between 8,900 and 9,400.")
To me it's obvious that 9,682 vs. 9,400 people wouldn't cause huge processing delays for family reunification CSQ applications, although what they did not say is how many people have actually applied. So I think this probably confirms that they were slowing their CSQ processing to keep the numbers down.