The Trudeau government is scrapping an unpopular lottery system for immigrants looking to reunite with their parents and grandparents.

The changes, which will take effect in 2019, will replace the random selection process for sponsorship applications with a first-come-first-served application process. The process will continue until the government meets its new quota of 20,000 applications.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told reporters at an event in Vancouver that the changes will make “substantial improvements” to parent and grandparent sponsorship process and “eliminate” backlog.

The “lottery” system drew criticism when it was introduced last year after many potential sponsors said they felt it was unfair. These complaints forced the government to extend invitations to more potential sponsors and increasing its 2018 program cap to 17,000 applications.

This recent move, the department said in a press release, has “significantly” reduced the waitlist for people looking to reunify their family in Canada from 167,000 applications in 2011 to under 26,000 in June 2018.

Hussen said the government is committed to make more changes to the application process that will “streamline access” and potentially let more families be sponsored over time.

The department will announce further improvements to the program in the fall.

With files from the Canadian Press