Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last government made a commitment to increase territorial population by 2,000 new residents by 2020. While we are still far from this target in our mandate, this government restated the commitment to increase the number of immigrants settling here.

Immigration is good. It brings diversity, innovation, optimism, and fresh perspectives to our territory, while increasing our tax base, investments, and territorial financing formula. It makes sense that we split the nominee program into two streams; one administered by Education, Culture and Employment, and the other by Industry, Tourism and Investment.

The ECE stream is connected to employers seeking skilled workers, while ITI's stream focuses on new investment in the form of business development. ECE's employers' stream is seeing some success. In 2015, we welcomed about 103 new residents, and 125 in 2016. That meets the department's goal of increasing immigration by 25 per cent. At this pace, we will bring in 823 new residents by 2019.

ITI's business stream has been much less successful. Between 2015 and 2017, we had only three applications, totalling 10 new immigrants. I would like to know if ITI has identified the reasons for the lack of success of the business stream, and what it plans to do to address it. Mr. Speaker, it is important to know how other jurisdictions attract foreign nationals. After all, they are our competition. As an example, British Columbia requires potential new residents to invest $200,000 in a new or purchased business. The NWT requires $300,000, if located in Yellowknife. One can imagine that new Canadians might rather invest less and enjoy a milder climate and more amenities and opportunities.

Mr. Speaker, we Northerners know we live in the best place in the world, but it is not always easy to attract southern Canadians to the NWT, let alone people from the rest of the world. I commend the government on its success inviting immigration, but the NWT needs skills, dedication, new ideas, and energy. Not to mention, we need the investment new residents will bring. We need to improve our immigration process to attract bright, creative, energetic new residents to contribute to our growing community of Northerners. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will have questions for the Minister of ITI. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.