That's a great question because the sky is the limit, but having a small team managing the pilot from the CEDC also limits the amount of intake we can do. We feel that 150 to 200 or potentially 250 is a really good range to be able to work with for this pilot. We weren't disappointed at all by having 69 applicants in the first year. We thought that was a very realistic goal and one that we met very easily with the local pool.
It's also something we have to think about. Tapping the local pool in the first year was very easy and then there was a shift. Half of the applicants this year were actually people who have never set foot in Thunder Bay. We have more employers coming out now saying they haven't been able to find anyone and asking if they can start looking at people who are overseas. We're like, yes, of course.
It's about half and half right now. In terms of numbers, we think that's a pretty good range. It's a manageable range for us to be processing applications.