Tory MLA wants legislature committee to probe provincial immigrant program TERESA WRIGHT The Guardian
A provincial government immigrant program that aimed to connect foreign money to P.E.I. businesses should be probed by the public accounts committee, says committee chair Jim Bagnall.
A complaint filed with the RCMP by a local business owner alleging fraud took place in the Provincial Nominee Program has raised questions about the program.
The complaint to the RCMP, coupled with internal rumours of possible discrepancies in the way the government corporation approved businesses for eligibility in this program, makes it an issue public accounts should look at, Bagnall said.
“Any time there’s talk of public funds being mishandled, then it should be an issue for public accounts to look into,” he told The Guardian on Friday.
“We’re talking $200-$400 million and there’s a lot of questions going around right now as to the way this money was being handled. So my concern is that it may be something that public accounts would want to have a look at.”
But that decision will have to made by the committee as a whole.
The P.E.I. Provincial Nominee Program was put in place for immigrants to have their Canadian visa applications expedited if they could offer some business or employment benefit to a province.
The program has several aspects, one of which involves a partnership agreement struck between immigrants and local businesses.
The immigrant agrees to purchase $200,000 worth of shares in local company.
Some of that money is paid back to the immigrant after a period of time, a portion of it goes to legal and broker’s fees and some of the money stays within the local company.
Last year over 800 immigrants utilized this program. This year, 1,877 immigrants came to P.E.I. through this program, and as a result over $280 million was retained by local businesses until Sept. 2 when the federal government ended the Provincial Nominee Program.
Bagnall said he believes the program will likely be discussed during the public accounts committee meeting on Tuesday.
“I’m seeing a lot of controversy spinning around in the last few days so it’s probably going to be a topic of discussion at our committee,” Bagnall said.
“The committee does have the power to ask the auditor general for an investigation to have it be looked into. So that could happen.”
Auditor General Colin Younker said he’s not currently investigating the program but added that could change.
“We’re always doing ongoing planning so we may and probably will at some point in time,” he said.
He said he would be keeping an eye on comments and concerns raised publicly about this issue.
“We always look at what the comments are if programs might have interest to the legislature and to the public,” Younker said.
“It’s what goes into consideration as part of our planning.”
When asked if any concerns have been raised with him about the nominee program, Younker replied: “I’m not going to answer that question. There is one in front of the RCMP.”
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Stephen Pate from Charlottetown, PE writes: It's about time the Liberal Millionaires Club was investigated. This is worse than Liberal Ad-Scam
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A Question of Ethics from Kensington, PEI writes: Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life.
An ethical code may be styled as a code of professional responsibility, which may dispense with difficult issues of what behavior is ethical .
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Confused in Cornwall from PE writes: Mismanaging money is one thing, but have you seen this: http://www.peiinfo.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19129&sid=107419b8f1b9edce023137cb9cdf1956
With this government, it's not just mismanagement of taxes that you need to worry about.
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Chelle from NS & PI writes: Does this RCMP Investigation on PEI have connections to the ongoing Police Investigation re: Nova Scotia's Immigrant
Immigration scandal.
Although Halifax, NS is just a 5 hour drive from Charlottetown, quite often the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing with Police investigating corruption networks that include private business and government.
Individuals in NS have been illegaly profitting off of government funded Immigrant/Immigration programs in NS since 1990's Immigrant-Investor Program involving Real Estate/Land Developer's Mortgage Bonds.
The most recent the same program as PEI's run out of Halifax and the ongoing investigation of the CONServative candidate who resigned days after she was nominated by the Fed. CONS in regard to The financial collapse of a group that helped immigrant women in Halifax shows the federal government needs to tighten its screening of applications for such programs, the cabinet minister responsible for Nova Scotia said Thursday.
The information is found at The Chronichle Herald.
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Robert Szilvassy from Charlottetown, PE writes: PEI will never survive economically without Foreign Investment. there is not enough capital circulating on the Island. With a pitiful (aging ) population of say 150,00, the majority of the people only spend on their necessities, not more. Therefore there are insufficient taxes paid all around, such as sales tax.
There is not much revenue to work with for any Government on PEI's population alone & the tourist season visitors combined contribute for a healthy economy.
A healthy growing economy is when the construction industry is present & growing rapidly. In PEI (Charlottetown) every street has at least one house for sale. The downtown core is a Ghost Town with businesses closing day in & day out. Shortly there will be nothing left to close down.This fact alone should make tourists scratch their heads when they wander downtown sightseeing.
PEI needs a appropriate program & incentives to attract immigrants in order to boost the population & economy.
The younger population is running away from PEI for better employment opportunities elsewhere (Alberta).
The future does not look very bright in PEI until this program is cleaned up & reinstated or replaced with a better, more versatile program without the F word Fraud . QUICKLY!!!
Smaller programs with $50,000 investment requirements for smaller businesses to qualify for expansion purposes.
This would possibly create employment opportunities with smaller businesses.
This program should be treated like gold &
foreigners equally.
This is a very bad mark for the program, Fraud isn't the best choice word for a reference to the The P.E.I. Provincial Nominee Program, whoever is at fault. There are other provinces in Canada equally competing for Foreign investment.
This will not go away easily, hopefully this incident or issue will be dealt with in a professional manner with better news regarding this topic in the future.
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