Again, as I think my colleague, Mr. Gillespie, mentioned, there is a priority on truck drivers, for example. As you and this committee are no doubt aware, there is a high demand. As the program and pathway to apply for work permits has no cap and is unlimited, we've seen resurgence in the volume of applications across all lines of business.
We are quickly working to get back to service standards. From January to September of this year, we've issued approximately 552,000 work permits. When we compare that to last year, that figure was about 147,000 for that same period.