Folks,
It seems, they were testing the year field. Their year field is not working. It was shown as January 4, 2016. We are in 2017. Pray to god that they rectify the year field and make the draw tomorrow.
Second on the question, why the draw sizes would be higher. It has a logical reasoning, which is also communicated by CIC many times. In 2015 and 2016, EE was used to draw only 50% (half) of budgeted for the PR. Rest half of the budget was used for the paper based applications prior to EE regime - before January 2015.
After two years, this is definite that paper based applications would not have that much volume. Hence, majority of the selection for the PR will be from EE.
When 50% was the selection criteria for EE, then the draw size was 1500+/-. Now when the majority will be selected using EE, definitely, the draw size has to be bigger to meet the annual targets. Also, targets for 2017 has been increased. So we do expect further fat in the draw.
Hope this helps.
Thank you,
Pawshi