Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to help people who want to make NWT their home. And who can blame them? It's one of the best places on earth as far as I can tell.
Since 2009, our nominee program has supported over 1100 foreign nationals and over 660 of their dependants in accessing permanent residence from the federal government. Since its inception, over 200 different NWT employers have accessed the nominee program to assist them in filling their workforce needs in every region of our territory.
Mr. Speaker, our territory has a tremendous amount of hard-to-fill roles. From a purely economic standpoint, we can't significantly grow our businesses and economy any more than we have without more people, and our population has been static for a long time. If we want to diversify our economy and create more opportunity for all of us, there simply aren't enough of us to go around.
The great majority of applicants to our nominee program are temporary foreign workers already living in Canada on a work visa. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we're now in a situation where the federally-imposed limits on spaces available to newcomers and all programs for permanent residency, not just the NWT nominee program, means that many folks are losing access to their dreams. Many newcomers have expiring work visas and are waiting on renewals to those visas with IRCC while waiting for our nominee program or other federal streams.
Mr. Speaker, this gray area is called implied status and adds to the stress for people who are following all of the federal rules. Implied status is basically the definition of bureaucratic limbo. This is when Canada tells you you can stay while your file is being processed but, meanwhile, the NWT cancels your driver's licence and health care card. Adding to more frustration, massive position cuts have been announced federally at IRCC, and these kinds of delays to work visa renewal times are likely to increase. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of ECE.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Members' statements. Member from the Sahtu.
