We are not asking IRCC to finalize our apps. We are asking then to simply START the process. The whole process will take one year or longer, COVID will be fully controlled by that time. Anyways, that’s my opinion at least.
As I have been rather critical of the idea of asking for "TRVs for all" (because, as I noted, the government has a statutory responsibility to take certain steps to reduce the chances of visa fraud, and that can only be changed by a law that NO parties would support) .... here's my constructive advice.
Contact MPs, journalists and whoever else to put questions to the government:
1) What are the numbers of applicants and processing times? (More specific questions needed)
2) What impact is covid going to have on expected timelines for family class? Are there analyses/statistics on how long well-established steps in process are taking now compared to before covid delays?
3) What are the specific steps the government will be taking to clear any backlog?
4) Are there any other measures being considered to reunite families more quickly (if 'clearing the backlog' is going to take longer)?
The main 'targets' to get to ask these questions (apart from one's own MP) would be: opposition critics (MPs) for immigration; members of relevant parliamentary committee; journalists who follow immigration; other advocacy groups.
MPs can formulate these as written or oral questions (in the House of Commons to Minister of Immigration. Ministers do NOT like to not be able to respond in some way, but the more precise the question the better.
Journalists and other more specialised can also file Access to Information requests. This requires some knowledge of how to formulate. I would expect that the requests should target memoranda to the Minister or to senior executives in Immigration department.
There are complicated issues that Cabinet memoranda will NOT be released under ATI requests - since memoranda to minister that make recommendations may be Cabinet-related, they may be also excluded or heavily redacted. BUT: there are almost certainly reporting documents - data and statistics - that may be annexes or separate, and it should be possible to formulate a proper ATI request to get these.
My point is, it will be next to useless to just repeat "give us visas" when government can't under law without fulfilling steps. But getting data and information first and THEN - when there is concrete info showing large backlogs and lack of progress - asking government what it will do to fix the issue will be more effective.
My opinion only.