I think there were already plans in place to try to process H&C applications faster because there was such a backlog people were able to establish themselves during the 2-3 years it was taking to process applications. The time waiting for H&C was often used as strong evidence for why one should be able to remain in Canada and not the time before filing H&C. The changes just happened to coincide with covid. The asylum claims processing system has also gone through changes where cases are identified as less complex early on and a wider cross-section of cases can be determined as less complex. Seems like they have a similar thing for H&C cases. For cases that are relatively simple where it is easy to determine if H&C AIP will approved or H&C will be denied people are now getting an answer in closer 6 months to a year versus 2-3 years.