I thank the honourable member for his question.
We understand that this system is being replicated from a very successful model out of New Zealand and Australia. The numbers seem to indicate that over the past couple of years we've seen a rise in permanent long-term immigrants, from about 8,000 to about 20,000, just in New Zealand alone. Those are people who are entering the skilled trades because the demand is there and there's a process in place that's allowing them to fill those demands.
With New Zealand, for example, the request for construction workers is basically coming from two major populations: India and China, with China being the number one country. Since 1999, the Chinese have had 20% growth in the construction industry, year over year. They have approximately 24.1 million people working in the construction industry alone.
What we've seen is that countries who have adopted this model are recognizing those niche markets. They are able to pull those workers in and offer them employment and stability within their respective regions and within the respective supply and demand force.
I think the EOI model allows that system to flourish by being able to work together.