I applied at CIC islamabad, Pakistan for a temp work permit on April 24th. Still waiting to hear from the embassy. Official website says normal processing time is 16 weeks though last years record shows average of 9 months.
At least here, estimate for visit visa as well as student visa is much less i.e. 30 days for visit and 8 to 12 weeks for student visa.
And students are getting visas in time i.e. most of them have gotten medical calls in around a month's time on average. Online is certainly faster. The following gives you an idea.
http://goo.gl/55cjf
This is a list of student applications from CIC Islamabad, Pakistan. Most of them have gotten medical calls and a few have received visas too.
The reason i am joining in on this thread is, that i think temp work permits are delayed for several reasons in Canada e.g. the RBC (royal bank of canada) issue that is in the news
for hiring 45 temp workers to replace their employees. So at least we have a general idea of the speed of processing of temp worker visas.
My employer has been in touch with CIC via MP office and received a much similar feedback i.e. process is being delayed due to further scrutiny on account of media news about misuse of temp worker visas.