Nominee program 2008 News Story of Year TERESA WRIGHT The Guardian
Controversy and political intrigue have surrounded P.E.I.’s biggest news story of 2008 — a compelling saga involving hundreds of millions of immigrant dollars, politicians, bureaucrats, local companies and corporations, the provincial and federal governments and newcomers to P.E.I.
And despite its late arrival on the news scene this year, The Guardian’s editorial department chose the Provincial Nominee Program as the News Story of the Year for P.E.I.
Allegations of fraud and government mismanagement of this program have kept coffee shops, Internet blogs and social circles abuzz with rumour. Headlines and newscasts have led with PNP stories almost every day for months.
This made it an easy choice for the top news story of the year.
“The PNP controversy came to light late in the year but it has engaged Islanders like few stories have in recent years,” said Guardian managing editor Gary MacDougall.
“As a story, it has a lot going for it: a virtually unknown segment of the P.E.I. population is involved, huge amounts of money are at stake and it is rife with political intrigue. Plus the story has legs — people will be reading about it for months to come.”
But a number of other important stories vied for top news story honours in 2008.
The rollercoaster ride of fuel prices was a serious concern for many Islanders.
The early months of 2008 saw oil and gas prices climb to their highest levels ever. This drove the cost of living and doing business to unforeseen heights. Many industrial and agricultural sectors were severely impacted, including here on P.E.I.
Many low-income and aging Islanders were forced to choose between food and fuel in the coldest days of winter. Electricity prices skyrocketed and rents are soon set to jump as a result of the crude oil crunch.
But the world economic downturn has seen oil prices plummet once again to more manageable levels, easing the burden on pocketbooks. Crude prices have fallen steeply, from $147 U.S. a barrel in July to approximately $38 US as of Monday.
Other noteworthy news events this year include the controversies over the Festival of Lights and Alanis Morissette rock concerts, the hospital debate in West Prince, the ice storm in late January and the province’s school buses being pulled off the roads in late spring.
But the PNP, and the storm of controversy it has created, stood out from the pack.
The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) offered Canadian visas to immigrants who invested $200,000 on P.E.I., some of which went into an Island company. It was established to encourage more immigration to the province.
But serious questions have been raised about how the program was run after it was uncovered several MLAs and the former deputy minister in charge of the program accessed PNP money.
Questions have also been raised about hefty bonuses paid to employees who processed applications, about which Island business owners benefited from the immigrant funds, and why so many applications were put through in the last four months before the program ended.
A total of 1,877 PNP applications were processed between May and Sept. 2. This is more than double the total amount processed last year.
Immigrants who have come to P.E.I. through this program have also complained of problems in accessing $25,000 good-faith deposits they were charged in addition to their PNP investments. Some Chinese immigrants were escorted by police off the premises of a government building in October after staging a sit-in protest in an effort to get their deposits returned.
And many questions still remain about the PNP — how it was run, who benefited most from the immigrant investments and why the government seems reluctant to answer questions about the issue.
The provincial auditor general is currently investigating the program and the RCMP is looking into an allegation of fraud by a business owner’s involvement in the program.
Meanwhile, the Opposition has been pushing to have PNP administrators, as well as former deputy minister Brooke MacMillan and current deputy Michael Mayne, appear before the public accounts committee to answer questions about the PNP.
But Innovation Minister Richard Brown, whose department oversees the PNP, announced recently no information on the PNP would be forthcoming from government until the auditor general releases his final report.
This has only raised more questions about this program, says Holland College journalism instructor Wayne Young.
“When those answers aren’t coming until a later date, then the questions linger and doubts increase,” he said. “I think that’s really what’s given this story legs. There really haven’t been adequate answers to the questions through the whole process, so we’re waiting for it to unfold — and obviously it hasn’t yet.”
UPEI history professor and political commentator Ian Dowbiggin agrees.
The huge sum of money and the large number of businesses involved coupled with the political accountability issues at stake make this a large impact story, Dowbiggin said.
“At the end of the year, we have a lot more unanswered questions then we did when the story broke a few months ago so that as time goes on, speculation abounds, rumours are flying. This story has more legs than a centipede . . . and if a third of what has been alleged turns out to be true, this could be the biggest political scandal in P.E.I. history.”
Past winners:
Past Guardian News
Stories of the Year
— 1993: Catherine Callbeck election as P.E.I. premier;
— 1994: 7 1/2 per cent public sector wage rollback;
— 1995: Bombing of P.E.I. Legislature;
— 1996: Raising of Irving Whale oil barge;
— 1997: Opening of Confederation Bridge;
— 1998: David 'Eli' MacEachern winning Olympic gold medal;
— 1999: Tracadie Cross hearse accident;
— 2000: Prime Minister gets pie in face;
— 2001: Sept. 11 and its impact on Prince Edward Island;
— 2002: Lawrence MacAulay resignation from federal cabinet;
— 2003: Hurricane Juan;
— 2004: Collapse of fishery processor Polar Foods;
— 2005: Gas price shocker;
— 2006: Islanders head West;
— 2007: Crisis in agriculture.
Stories considered:
In no particular order, here is list of stories considered for Newsmaker of the Year:
— Fuel prices;
— PNP controversy;
— Infection issues at Queen Elizabeth Hospital;
— Making music (controversy over Festival of Lights and Alanis Morissette rock concerts);
— Restructuring of the Catholic church on P.E.I.;
— Introduction of canned beer and pop;
— Ice storm of late January;
— Confusion over radiology reports at QEH;
— P.E.I. agriculture in crisis, farm protests;
— School buses taken out of commission;
— Hospital debate in West Prince;
— West Prince residents protest high voltage power lines.
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Curious from PEI writes: The pnp scandal is and will continue to be fascinating, especially when and if all of the players are revealed. All who received the monies fraudulently should be called out, not just the politicians. I don't think the money was intended for vacations, fancy new vehicles, and swimming pools.
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How does it feel?? from PEI writes: Premier Ghiz: You've done virtually nothing to help the farmers in this province, yet you want to come down on them like a tonne of bricks over environmental issues. Farmers are already working on those things, but you say you're going to do more because the public wants action. Guess what? The environmental situation is much better here than in many other areas of North America, but because we have an activist media here and very little other news , it gets blown into a huge issue for Islanders. Now you're feeling the heat from lots of media attention, but you deny there's a problem with the PNP $$. News story of the year - congratulations. Hopefully you'll think about how the media is treating you, and whether you should reconsider your position on other media created stories . We need to work on real, positive change in this province, and not just optics! Thank you!
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Changing to Blue from PEI writes: I think this will collapse the Ghiz party, shake up the PEI political scene, and the tide will switch back to blue....... Unless there is a new leader to take over from Ghiz
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Taxpayer from Charlottetown, PEI writes: Who wants to bet that the Nominee program isn't the top news story in 2009 as well. It can only get more interesting as they probe deeper and deeper.
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reader from pei writes: This PNP mess has put the premier in a difficult position with few choices in the publics eye.He should take the difficult step and remove Brown and show the voters that he really is the leader and in control,or maybe he should look at his own performance and decide if he really is the best person for the job of running the Liberal party and the province.
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wondering about it from pei writes: Must be a slow news year when a program that can't seem to be grasped and understood by the media becomes the top story.
I am wondering as this tale of speculation and rumour continues to be spun, how long until some nice juicy sex can be woven in with money, greed and abuse of power to turn the saga into a complete work of fiction.
There are many things about the program that smell because in reality it is simply a 21st century version of the old Chinese head tax that is in place in all Provinces. If you think the PEI version is bad, you better put on a noseplug before you look at the grand daddy of them all, the Quebec version.
Remember, its the intermediaries that make the connections between the immigrant investor and Companies. Once a Company qualified for units they went to the intermediaries to make the match.
The role of Government was to carry out the administration of the program, qualify the Companies according to preset qualifications and determine if the immigrant met the conditions to participate.
The real questions you have to ask are these, did any politician instruct staff or intermediaries to provide investors for particular Companies or did any politician have staff ignore rules that would have disqualified a Company.
Anything beyond that like 'who got units etc, is only tidbit fishing to satisfy curiousities and so long as rules were followed by Companies it is not the publics business and there is no right to know because no public funds are involved.
Intermediaries or agents can do whatever they want and could supply an immigrant to whoever they wanted to as long as the Company qualified, they are private business people and conformed to the rules before them. And it is no ones business what they do as long as they operate within the rules.
When the dust settles it will be evident it was the best best development program the Feds ever had, didn't cost the taxpayers anything, the immigrants were happy to participate and many island businesses will be able to weather the current financial downturn because of it.
Remember, this is a Federal Program, not Provincial, the Province only provided the administration for them but the Feds made the rules.
Its a story more fit for the National Enquirer, than the National Post, but I guess when there are no Watergates to cover we readers will have to settle for Woman 104 Gives Birth to Alien Twins , its so much more fun.
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More Questions from PEI writes: Very true, the more this Liberal gov't tries to deny something went wrong here, the more the public and media will want more. Quit hiding the truth Mr. premier and let Islanders know what the real story is here.
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JD from PE writes: Wondering..You are correct it is a National Enquirer story. Only problem is that we have a Premier & Cabinet that are also National Enquirer material.
Only in the Enquirer would see elected people accessing Government Program while hiding them from the public.
Only in the Enquirer would we read about friends of some corrupt Government who charged huge legal and accounting fees to Immigrants.
Only in the Enquirer would we ever read about Immigrant Investors investing in unknown companies or even comapnies that as investors they can never contact.
Only in the Enquirer would we ever read about a Government with holding a head tax forcing people to learn English.
Only in the Enquirer would ever see business people who are friends of the Government receiving FREE Money with not need to ever pay it back.
Only in the Enquirer would you ever read about a Government who takes money from potential Immigrants and gives them nothing.
Only in the Enquirer would we ever read about a Provincial Government selling Country Citizenships and seeing nothing wrong with it.
You are right this is an Enquirer Story but usually only from some tinpot dictatorship in some foreign country or some southern US State where Boss Hogg lives.
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Matt from Charlottetown, PE writes: Hey JD, since when are the accountants and lawyers charging the immigrants? Seems to me like those fees are charged to the Island businesses for the work they do for them. Also, the government doesn't pick which firms do work for the businesses, that's up to the business themselves. You can't go Liberal bashing and single out specific accountants when they've all done work on the program regardless of what political affiliation they are. Why don't you get your facts straight before you start showing how much you think you know. The intermediaries are the ones who profited the most from immigrant funds. They found a get rich quick program and it worked up until this point.
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Matt from Charlottetown, PE writes: Also, if anyone would like a laugh, check out this page: http://www.ibipei.com/aboutpei.html Shopping almost as good as Toronto . Hmmm.....
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C. Little from PE writes: I agree with Taxpayer. This story is just getting underway.
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wondering about it from pei writes: JD from PE - You competely miss the point.
The Premier was 100% correct when he observed that the optics of the program are the issue. I am afraid the whole thing is driven by the old Island attitude of not being able to stand seeing someone else get ahead , and it makes for such juicy gossip.
Any program has rules and they have to be followed. It is irrelevant who received what, as long as the rules were followed.
The new Federal rules have upped the investment to $1,000.000 for a 1/3 interest and active participation. The problem with that is it has reduced to number of Companies on PEI that can participate to essentially zero. That should bring some comfort to the PNP detractors but doesn't do any good for the PEI economy.
Why can't a politician have equal status with everyone else when dealing with government. I don't believe a sitting cabinet Minister can participate, those are the rules governing them but I see nothing wrong with an MLA conducting a business from participating, if they are excluded it is discrimination.
The only test should be, did they use their position to receive a benefit? The same should apply to Civil servants, I believe that Civil servants xurrently have to disclose to their Deputy Ministers their business interests for a determination if they are in a conflict and abide by his/her decision.
Matt is right, accounting and legal work is a business transaction paid for by the business. No administrator with Government in their right mind would tell anyone they have to use a particular professional service unless they have decided they no longer wish to be employed with the Gov't of PEI, you can't do that.
Because it seems to be missed let me put it in capitals.
THE IMMIGRATION PROGRAMS ARE FEDERALLY BASED, THEY MAKE THE RULES,
NOT THE PROVINCE.
No one who participated is going to argue that it wasn't a good program. If anyone chose not to participate because of an ethical issue that was their freedom of choice. But don't get confused, you can't tie something that you don't agree with, as doing something wrong.
The immigrants who participated are incredible people, very successful and much brighter than most of us. These are successful business people who have amassed sizeable assets and are fully capable of making decisions concerning any transactions they enter into. I believe that 1877 of them decided in 2008 that it was well worth the money, and the rules were acceptable to them to participate in the PNP Program.
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JD from PE writes: Matt You make my case very nicely.
Even with that page you posted.
Here you had a Government Program being administered by a Government Department and Over saw by the Deputy & Minister of the same department.
These Government Officials are involved with people like the person who put up that website.
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John MacInnis from Charlottetown, PEI writes: This is an excellent choice for story of the year in the news. Canadian citizenship should not be for sale, and a complete criminal and forensic accounting investigation would uncover the names of people who should be be given lengthy penitentiary terms for what has gone on with this program. I was surprised on the day this story hit the news, because until the story hit the news, I was not aware that citizenship to Canada was being sold. I've met lots of people from other countries who came to Canada for a better life, and none of them had to fork over large amounts of cash in order to have a chance to become Canadian citizens. The entire mess needs to be dragged out into the light and examined by professionals who can supply answers for what is obviously criminal activity.
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John from pei writes: The top newstory of the year should be how so much has been said about nothing. The idea that a story that this PNP , issue is the top news story of the year is a sad state for this Island. By this I mean that nothing has been said by the media, about how the lives of so many people have been changed for the better because they have been given the opportunity to become citzens of this geat country and are entitled to the benifits that go with it. Instead the media has this ability only to print what they beleive is good reporting. These people who have come here from places like China where they have no hope of a future in freedom. The media and others should relize that they have an obilgation to report the news both the good and the bad sense as they see it. I hope in the new year that the media ties just for once print the true picture and find that it is okay to say something good
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Doug Park from PE writes: To say accountants and lawyers did not profit from this program more than others is simply false. Most business people go to professional ACCOUNTANTS and LAWYERS before applying for a program such as the Nominee One. Heck I have even heard there might be lawyers and acccountants suggesting the program to their clients. This program and all who used and abused it should be exposed with a public enquiry.
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Matt from Charlottetown, PE writes: I'm not saying that professional service firms did not profit from the program. Of course they did. All I'm saying is that the fees did not get added onto the funds paid by the foreign investor, it ultimately would come out of the total amount that the local business received. The immigrant is paying $200k regardless of where the money goes, and they know they're supposed to be entitled to a certain portion back. I'm sure they care less where the rest goes after that. (Whether they get their deposits back is the real issue here I would say.)
Also, I bet if you compare the funds received by lawyers or accountants to that of the agents/intermediaries, you'll see a huge difference and one has to realize that a couple of thousand dollars is small peanuts when compared to the tens of thousands that I'm sure agents made off with...
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