In Thunder Bay, the pilot launched officially in November 2019. We got started with our first round of recommendations in about April of 2020, and that was due to a number of factors. First, the MOUs were being negotiated with each of the communities, so we didn't really get started until after the MOUs had been finalized. The second part was that when COVID hit Canada, we had to rethink how we were going to manage this program. It was primarily a paper-based program, and with all of us having to switch to working from home, both at IRCC and at the Thunder Bay CEDC, we had some challenges in getting it up and running.
Once we got it rolling in April, we found that there was very positive response. We weren't surprised to see that most of the success was from the local pool, those who were graduated and already living in Thunder Bay and had a desire to stay here, and then also temporary residents living in other parts of Canada, who had skills and qualifications that met the needs of Thunder Bay and were looking to relocate here for work, and also for their permanent residency.
In the first year, which we count as being January 1 to the end of December 2020, we recommended 69 principle applicants and their families. There were 50% of those people who were international students. Also, 50% of the occupations that were filled were in the health care industry, and we were really happy about that. It was very successful in supporting two of our major employers, St. Joseph's Care Group and the Thunder Bay regional hospital, with RPNs, RNs and PSWs, so we were really excited about that.
So far this year, we've recommended 53 principle applications. We're already almost at the same number that we did in the entire first year. I think we have a better sense of how the program goes, what the story of an application is like and how it gets from point A to the end. We're doing a lot better at the processing element of it, and we have a lot of support from the employers in Thunder Bay.