Thank you, Madam Speaker. The quota, as dictated by the Government of Canada, was established years ago. I would have to assume it's based on our population. I would imagine that as soon as we hit that quota, that quota would be increased. We're never going to be continuously hitting the quota. We always want to strive for better. I will say that during the life of this government, we have done a lot in terms of immigration and increasing the population, you know, and I'm happy to announce that since I took office we've doubled the number of people coming in through our nominee program. Back in 2019, there was around -- less than 50, with their families less than 70. We're now up to 108 nominees; with their dependants, 140 individuals immigrated to the Northwest Territories last year. So we are making progress, Madam Speaker.
And to the other part of the question, what are we doing? Well, we have done quite a bit. We're developing resources. We've created a welcome to the NWT booklet for potential and actual immigrants to the territory. We've updated and modernized the nominee program website. We've made the application accessible online. We've introduced a Francophone stream recently. We've made changes to our nominee program. We continuously make changes to make it more accessible for employers. We are working to implement a new stream focused on in demand occupations. We are participating in an economic pathways pilot to attract skilled refugees from abroad.
And to the Member's third question in that series, we expect that there -- well, hopefully some modest increases, maybe five or ten applicants through that stream. But if we keep chipping away at this, those numbers will continue to go up. Thank you, Madam Speaker.