A group of Chinese immigrants is confronted by an official just outside P.E.I. Business Development Inc. in Charlottetown as they tried to enter the building. They were seeking to have their $25,000 “good faith” deposits returned.
At least one Chinese immigrant involved in a protest outside a provincial government building Wednesday was handed a cheque on Thursday for $25,000.
The money was a “good faith’’ deposit paid by certain immigrants as part of their investment in the Provincial Nominee Program. This money is supposed to be returned after the immigrants have lived in Canada for over a year.
Jinhui “John’’ Gao showed up for the third day in a row to the P.E.I. Business Development Inc. (BDI) office on Thursday right at 9 a.m. looking to get his $25,000 deposit back.
Before entering the building he told reporters he would go straight to the premier’s office if he could not get a meeting at BDI on his third day of trying.
About 10 other Chinese immigrants wanting their deposits returned joined Gao Thursday as he made his way into the BDI office.
A security guard standing in the lobby informed them they could only enter one at a time and had to make an appointment to speak with someone about their complaints.
Gao was the first in line and the rest followed, booking appointments for later in the day.
The media was asked to leave the building.
Gao was escorted into an interior office, and about 10 minutes later emerged with a $25,000 cheque in his hand. He did not want to comment but had a big smile on his face as he showed off his cheque.
Gao invested $105,000 in a P.E.I. business, plus $20,000 for a language deposit, and the $25,000 deposit, bringing his total investment in the program to $150,000.
A woman with Gao said the people inside told her the other Chinese immigrants would also be getting their money Thursday.
“They promised,’’ she said.
These same immigrants, plus a few more, staged a sit-in protest at BDI in Charlottetown on Wednesday in an attempt to get their deposits back. They have all been living on P.E.I. for over a year.
Gao and the other immigrants present said they’ve been requesting a meeting since Tuesday.
No one from the Crown corporation met with them and on Wednesday evening they were escorted off the premises by police.
Michael Mayne, deputy director of the Department of Innovation and Advanced Learning and acting CEO of BDI, which oversees the Provincial Nominee Program, said the decision to call the police was made by the department.
“(It) was a decision that was not taken lightly, by any means, because we’re quite aware of what the optics would be,’’ Mayne said in an interview with The Guardian.
“What happened (Wednesday) was unfortunate. I feel quite bad about what happened but the optics of this, obviously as you would interpret and as most of us as reasonable people would interpret is, that’s not good.’’
He said his staff made several requests to the immigrants to meet individually but they refused, insisting on meeting as a group.
“We don’t have the capacity in the department to meet with groups of 20 people at a time to handle individual files,’’ Mayne said.
“These are all individual cases.’’
The reason these immigrant investors, who have been in Canada for over a year, have not been returned their “good faith’’ deposits is merely a matter of missing documentation, he added.
Several different proofs of residence are required in order to get this money back. Those who have not received their deposits are simply missing those documents, Mayne said.
But Gao told reporters Thursday he and his friends have provided everything they’ve been asked to give, and some of it was very personal information such as bank and credit card statements.
Mayne believes the mixup is due to a communication problem between department staff and the immigrants, most of whom speak very little English.
“I think it’s fair to say that the government needs to do a better job in terms of the translation of this,’’ Mayne said.
“Yes we have rules and regulations we have to follow, but let’s be more sensitive to the cultural differences, let’s be more sensitive to the translational aspects of this.
“So I’ve instructed the ministry and the department to make sure the translational services are there and available to them and that we can actually communicate in a real way and in real time with these people. It’s important that we do a much better job of interacting with our immigrant investors.’’
Gao was given his cheque Thursday because he provided one last piece of documentation on Wednesday, he added.
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hank the hammer from stratford, p.e.i. writes: Nice ending to an ugly storey.
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hank the hammer from stratford, p.e.i. writes: Nice to see him get his money!!
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Gail from Summerside, PEI writes: How are the immigrants supposed to understand what's going on when I can't even understand the government speak that Mayne uses? The optics ? You embarassed Islanders Mr. Mayne by calling the police on these immigrants- they left China for freedom and you do this to them because you don't have the room to meet with 20 upset immigrants? If that is the reason the police were called, I suggest someone use their optics to problem solve and not over react.
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WHAT THE???? from PE writes: 'So I’ve instructed the ministry and the department to make sure the translational services are there and available to them and that we can actually communicate in a real way and in real time with these people.'
They wanted to come to Canada and were willing to buy their way in. The only languages the department needs to worry about are English & French, the official languages of Canada. IF they need a translator, they can bring one. Or better yet, they can make sure that in the year, they learn either English or French.
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can you believe it from pei writes: this man receives his good faith deposit because he protests. does that mean every other person will receive their money back or do they have to protest as well. it is shameful that we treat people who come to live in our province this way. this government is heartless and corrupt
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C C from PEI writes: I agree with Ghiz on the news last night that these immigrants viewed this as an opportunity to get some publicity on an issue that the media is already jumping all over and blowing out of proportion. Ghiz and his government is taking a lot of heat for years of work before he was in power. There was a list of requirements and guidelines that was required to be eligible of receiving these funds.. No reason to blame anyone for applying and receiving these funds. This program was already in place long before the liberals. I would imagine there were a lot of former government employees that received this money but are no longer there and not under spotlight. Has CBC asked any former Conservative Party employees whether or not they have received any money? I would imagine that Charlottetown CBC is and will do everything they can to protect the image of their Conservative Party. Again I must say no matter what political party you belong I don't see a problem as long as your business meets the criteria there is no reason not to take advantage of this program. Making this big issue of this program will only hurt future opportunities for a program like this. Islanders have no way to even comprehend what this program has done for the Island with this injection of cash into the economy. We don’t have oil or natural gas, farming, fishing and tourism is declining this could be the Islands new number one industry: Immigration.
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Bobby from PEI. writes: Big news, big news, Hear all about it, More rambling from ghiz.. Was he not the one in power, so to speak last year when this Chap sent PEI the Money seeking a better life for HIMSELF? It is so easy for these polititions of today to cast blame on the other party.. Because it appears that they are not strong enought to stand up for their own accomplishments and mistakes. Where are their morals.. ooops whats that in Politics.. Maybe ghiz should be telling PEIslanders Why there are not more stipulations in place fot these people to Call PEI their Home as well. # 1, you come here to live and make a better life for your self, You work, You learn to speak our language and you live by OUR LAWS, You are the one coming here, Not the people of PEI , adapting to your way of life... Respect that PEI Is ENGLISH. and live Our laws. Visitors. No once you make the choice to live, work and stay here, marry, and raise family. # 1 language then to the children is English as they are born and being raised on PEI, Not back in china. As for these imigrants getting their money back,! Why should they, They should be thank ful to live here, Pay and be sponsored to come here, Why should they get money bak, Sound like Ghiz is selling OUR PROVINCE SHORT...BAD MISTAKE......
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C C Can't C from PEI writes: I don't believe anyone disputes that people of all party affiliation had access to this program. I do believe you had to be Liberal friendly to quialify after the Liberal Gov. changed the criteria to qualify. The program originally required a company be in existance for three years under the Conservatives and only a month under the Liberals.
You will see soon that legally all is right but ethically it stinks.
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Deb from NS writes: When there is an investigation going on by the Attorney General, why are the immigrants being given back their money before the investigation is finalized? These funds should be frozen now. Something is not right with that.
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Don't believe the Hype from PE writes: 'C C Can't C', you say the Liberals changed the criteria for compnaies to qualify. Where did you get this information? I have been following this story very closely and there are no media reports of this. Is this fact or rumor? Please site your source, as this would certianly raise some more questions and concerns.
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ZHW PEI from PEI, PEI writes: ABOUT LANGUAGE: It is interesting about the way people talk about the language issue. I do not see many people speak NATIVE INDIAN LANGUAGES. According to someone's philosophy, many people who are of non-native origins are in urgent need of learning some NATIVE INDIAN LANGUEAGES (NOT ENGLISH) because that was the language used in this land hundreds of years ago!
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Harold Long from Up West, pei writes: One of the requirements these Chinese had was that they have a minimum of $1,000,000.00. We brought in over 1850 in the last few months. This kind of wealthy chinese coming here to enjoy the canadian Citizenship may be good for them but I have very serious reservations about the long term effect these folks will have on our economy and social fabric. Who are these people actually? What relationship do they have with the present Chinese regime? How did they make there millions and what are there actual intentions? We now have a specific ethnic class of very wealthy people who will likely buy a heck of a lot more than expensive canadian citizenships. I think this is not the way one should come to canada but than I guess millions are being made by certain Island people with connections to the Ghiz Liberals. Buying your way into canada and jumping the immigration line just seems wrong to me!. I for one am glad that the Harper government has put an end to this program. So I will be casting my first Tory vote this time around.
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Thoroughly disgusted from outskirts, PE writes: OMG! This is worse than the head tax. What a shame has come upon our province! Time to get the weeds out of our garden province.
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BOb not that Bobby fellow from PEI writes: How about this then ...
My Hype - the change in the program from established to start up was documented on the PEI website during the last five months of the program when over 2000 immigrant applications were processed (compared to a few hundred in the first 7 years of the program). Minister Brown himself stated in the CBC interview he gave that changes were made to eligibility requirements - he refused to say what those changes were, but they were in fact a change to allow start-up companies with no more than a business plan to receive funds. It was a request from Ottawa wanting to know why so many of the so-called businesses that received money during this five month flurry of activity were listed as 'failing' immediately after they received the money that started the whole investigation on the first place. This has all been clearly documented by CBC over the last two weeks.
As to language - how come nobody is asking about the $20,000 dollars each person paid for LANGUAGE TRAINING. That really is rich. Blame people for not having proper language skills and call in the cops, but let's hush up the fact that the province was responsible for and received significant amounts of money to provide that very same training.
The money was taken under false pretenses with no intention of ever providign a return on investment to these so called immigrant investors because people were banking on the fact that immigrants would either be so happy to get in the country that they wouldn't care, or so unable to stick up for themselves and counter the bigotry of people like Bobby that they could be shouted down.
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Interested Observer from Charlottetown, PEI writes: I find it remarkable the number of people that see fit to make comments in relation to this program that know very little to nothing at all about it.
Firstly, the government does not endeavour to provide english training to the immigrants. They pay a good faith deposit to guarantee that they will gain a certain level of english proficiency within a certain period of time, but the government is not responsible for the implementation of their english training. In fact most of them take english training from Holland College.
Secondly, there seems to be a lot of people tossing flack in the provincial liberal direction in relaiton to this program. The program itself is a derivative of the Federal Immigration Act which is and has been for the last number of years, implemented by the Harper government. There are and were similar programs across the country. The final say as to whether the requirements of the act are complied with is in the federal government ... not the provincial.
Were there changes made to the elligibility requirments pursuant to the program ... yes there were ... but those changes were not in relation to businesses having been in existence for any given period of time, they were in relation to the way existing businesses could make their applicaiton and to the classes of elligible investee companies.
To be frank i am surprised that Mr. Baglole is the one that brought this issue up. The worst offenders of skirting the rules of this program were conservative supporters of the Pat Binns regime. In fact, it was because of their questionable activities that the Federal government threatened to pull the plug on this program numerous times over the last number of years. The program was then tightened up and numerous staff were hired under the current Liberal regime to ensure that those getting approved were legitimate.
To be frank it also baffles me that islanders are so quick to criticize other Islanders for exercising their ambition to get ahead in life. Quite frankly it reakes of jealousy. One would think that these people would stop to consider that a rising tide raises all boats ... but perhaps not.
Finally, I have not heard anybody yet state that the investors know from the outset exactly what they are getting themselves into ... or they are told ... whether they care or not. From the time they get their Canadian resident status, on, they are guaranteed to get their money back, due to a series of securities that have been set up to protect them and because the number of intermediares for the program were reduced and regulated.
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Natalie from AB writes: Communication problems ...YEAH RIGHT. Cheap greedy provincial government thought they could keep this hardworking man's money!!! YEAH RIGHT!!!
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Stinks like rotten fish guts from Summerside, PEI writes: Interested Observer,
Part of your comment is below and then below that is something for you to read about what the gov't spent to make a second language available to the immigrants. This comes from back in Jan 2007 on the Guardian site.
Firstly, the government does not endeavour to provide english training to the immigrants. They pay a good faith deposit to guarantee that they will gain a certain level of english proficiency within a certain period of time, but the government is not responsible for the implementation of their english training. In fact most of them take english training from Holland College.
The provincial government, through Island Investment Development Inc., is buying 150 full-time English language instruction seats from two educational institutions — 75 seats from Holland College and 75 from Study Abroad Canada.
The total cost is just under $280,000. Some of the money comes out of the province’s general revenue while funding is also being funneled through bonds purchased by immigrants when they come to Canada.
The two schools offer English as an additional language programs for students who want to improve their English for personal or job-related purposes. Certified teachers present the programs.
Premier Robert Ghiz said as the Island continues to see an increase in the number of immigrants it’s important the province work with the schools and private sector to offer services that entice newcomers to stay.
“This new co-operative effort will welcome newcomers to our province and assist them as they get accustomed to their new home,” Ghiz said.
Development and Technology Minister Richard Brown said the seats can be filled immediately.
“The money has been set aside, the contracts have been signed,” Brown said. “When the schools get together and open up the seats they can go at it right away.”
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sdds from pe writes: Ghiz? I don't think I should believe him...
We don't care what is going on inside the Parties, it's our own money we cared about. We are eligible of receiving the funds, just why don't they give the money back?!
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