Calls for full PNP probe
Opposition MLAs say allegations of abuse of business immigration program demand full-scale review
Calls emerged in the P.E.I. legislature Tuesday for a fullscale review of the Island’s Provincial Nominee Program amid new concerns about alleged abuses within this program by immigrant business owners.
Opposition Progressive Conservative MLAs dominated question period raising alarm about the PNP and allegations that have emerged in media reports over the last week by the Canadian Press.
The MLAs began and ended question period asking for a “full scale, top-to-bottom review” of the controversial Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).
“It is currently being used as a cash cow to cover poor fiscal management by this government,” said Opposition MLA Darlene Compton.
“Why is money, and not people, what this government values most in immigration?”
The concerns involve a growing trend in P.E.I. seeing immigrant-owned businesses opening and closing within a year, with some employing international students and allegedly asking them to pay back a portion of their salary under the table to their employers to lower their business costs.
The businesses are operated by business-class PNP immigrants who sign an escrow agreement with the province saying they will open a company, operate it in P.E.I. and live on the Island for a year. They submit a deposit of $200,000 as part of this agreement, which is forfeited if they do not meet the terms.
In return, the immigrants get fast-tracked permanent residency in Canada.
Allegations are now surfacing that some PNP newcomers are trying to get their deposits refunded by opening businesses aimed solely at meeting the minimum terms of their escrow agreements. Once they get their deposits back, many of them close their doors and leave the province, according to the allegations.
The province says 177 of the 296 nominees — 56 per cent — never opened a business at all, while a further 10 per cent didn’t fulfil some conditions of their escrow agreement and forfeited their deposits. Of the remaining 92, so far about a third closed after their mandatory 12 months of operation.
PNP deposit defaults have handed the province $23 million in revenues over the last two years.
Meanwhile, new data from Statistics Canada released Tuesday shows Prince Edward Island has the worst retention rate of economic class immigrants in the country. Only 14 per cent of economic class immigrants who arrived in P.E.I. in 2010 were still in the province five years later, the Stats Can data shows. That’s three times lower than the province with the next lowest rate – New Brunswick, which has a 45 per cent retention rate.
Opposition Leader James Aylward called on the province to change the rules of the program to force PNP immigrants to keep their businesses open for two years or more to improve retention rates and business practices.
He also pointed out a number of other provinces in Canada have phased out deposit systems like the kind used by P.E.I. due to similar problems.
Economic Development Minister Heath MacDonald defended his government’s handling of this program, pointing to recent changes to the way it is being administered, including a new ‘expression of interest” model where the province will prioritize immigrant nominee applications to align with the labour and economic needs of the province.
“Approximately five or six months ago we did a full scale review,” MacDonald said.
“We know the importance of immigration, we know the obvious migration to Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. We have to do something different, and that’s exactly what we’re intending to do.”
He says staff in his department is ramping up visits to businesses to ensure compliance to program rules and meetings are being held with the various agencies that deal with newcomers to ensure rules for the PNP are clearly outlined.
As for the allegations about international students being asked to pay back a portion of their salaries, MacDonald says an anonymous online tip line has been created to allow students or anyone with allegations to report to government.
“I want those individuals to come forward to the immigration office of Prince Edward Island because I will be the first one to enforce whatever we need to enforce and take the message, whatever it is, to the proper authorities, because if they’re breaking the laws they’re not doing us any good. They’re not doing the province of P.E.I. any good.”