I will share my point. I have heard from some people that their cases have been treated as pilots in order to speed up processing times.
Since 2015, Canada implemented Express Entry with the objective of processing applications in less than 6 months, but Quebec was not part of that process.
Since that time, Quebec treated the QSW cases including the CSQ in approximately 4 years, which gives us to understand that the waiting list or accumulated work was long. From what I see in some cases of people who share their 2017-2018 application times since the AOR was issued until they had any additional information again, more than 1 year passed and after that, the process was carried out in approximately 6 months.
As I read at some point when this thing about the issuance of AOR's had stopped so that the federal part could process our applications in times similar to those of Express Entry, then for me it makes some sense. Already today I saw a case in a Facebook group where someone who applied in July of last year (received the AOR in August 2019) and they are already asking him to update the criminal record for him and his wife, which indicates that they (Sydney office) are already close to the dates where the AOR's ended.
So I hope that soon they can continue with the broadcast of the AOR's and that the process is quick.
The federal part says that the processing time is from the date they receive the applications and they have the ability to process applications in a short time. So for those of us who have called and they have confirmed the reception date and have donated a XEP number, we must be calm and we will see that our cases will be completed soon.