For In-Canada Spousal Sponsorship applictions - First Stage approval is taking about 10-11 months. They are currently working on applications received on November 29, 2010. For Outside Canada Spousal Sponsorship applications - First Stage approval is taking about 68 days. They are currently working on applications received on August 31, 2011.
You can see this on CIC's website. I can't post links yet, but add "www" before the following to see the page I'm reading from ".cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp".
Good luck!