Applicants under certain streams of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) must deposit of between $100,00 and $200,000 to be held in escrow by the provincial Crown corporation, Island Investment Development Inc.
Last year, 45 immigrants under the business impact stream defaulted on their deposits, up from none the year before.
But P.E.I.’s immigration director Abbey MacPherson says despite this increase in defaults, these newcomers may still be in P.E.I.
“There’s some people who have tried to start a business and they just weren’t successful and abandoned it before they met the terms and conditions of their escrow agreement. There are others that decided not to do what they said they were going to do when they got here,” MacPherson said.
“I don’t think we were alarmed… it doesn’t mean that the person is not here or that they didn’t try to do what they wanted to do, it just means they didn’t meet the terms and conditions.”
Foreign nationals who apply to the business stream of the PNP can get a full refund of their deposit only by meeting both residency and business ownership requirements.
After six months of residency on the Island, they can get $25,000 of their deposit returned. They get another $25,000 after one year in P.E.I.
The remaining amount is returned once the applicant meets the conditions of the escrow agreement they signed with the province. It says they must open or purchase a business in P.E.I. or invest in an existing business, owning no less than 33-and-a-half per cent of the company's equity. Applicants have three years to meet the terms for a full refund.
MacPherson says efforts have been ongoing to encourage more immigrants to stay in P.E.I., including hiring settlement staff to work one-on-one with applicants, funding the P.E.I. Connectors Program and offering English ‘business language’ courses, which have been popular.
But despite this, a report this month from the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council found P.E.I. has the worst immigrant retention rate in Atlantic Canada. Using tax filings, APEC found only 41 per cent of immigrants who landed in P.E.I. five years ago have remained on the Island and that 34 per cent of newcomers leave P.E.I. within the first year.
That’s why Opposition MLA Sidney MacEwen says the province needs to produce its promised population strategy.
“We have a government that isn’t even tracking their retention rate, they don’t have a population strategy out yet, and they haven’t had one in many years,” MacEwen said.
“One of their main planks since they’ve been elected is recruitment and retention and so far it’s been pretty bad.”
Once PNP deposits are defaulted, the money becomes revenue for the province. Government also keeps interest accrued from the over $176 million currently being held in escrow by IIDI in PNP deposits.
Last year, government made over $5 million on PNP defaults alone – an increase of $3.8 million over the previous year.
Overall, the province generated $10.5 million in revenue from PNP defaults, interest and program fees in 2015-16.
MacPherson says some of this money is used for settlement services.
MacEwen says he hopes government will develop better measures to encourage more immigrants to make P.E.I. their permanent home.
HTTPS://Twitter.com/GuardianTeresa
Applicants under certain streams of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) must deposit of between $100,00 and $200,000 to be held in escrow by the provincial Crown corporation, Island Investment Development Inc.
Last year, 45 immigrants under the business impact stream defaulted on their deposits, up from none the year before.
But P.E.I.’s immigration director Abbey MacPherson says despite this increase in defaults, these newcomers may still be in P.E.I.
“There’s some people who have tried to start a business and they just weren’t successful and abandoned it before they met the terms and conditions of their escrow agreement. There are others that decided not to do what they said they were going to do when they got here,” MacPherson said.
“I don’t think we were alarmed… it doesn’t mean that the person is not here or that they didn’t try to do what they wanted to do, it just means they didn’t meet the terms and conditions.”
Foreign nationals who apply to the business stream of the PNP can get a full refund of their deposit only by meeting both residency and business ownership requirements.
After six months of residency on the Island, they can get $25,000 of their deposit returned. They get another $25,000 after one year in P.E.I.
The remaining amount is returned once the applicant meets the conditions of the escrow agreement they signed with the province. It says they must open or purchase a business in P.E.I. or invest in an existing business, owning no less than 33-and-a-half per cent of the company's equity. Applicants have three years to meet the terms for a full refund.
MacPherson says efforts have been ongoing to encourage more immigrants to stay in P.E.I., including hiring settlement staff to work one-on-one with applicants, funding the P.E.I. Connectors Program and offering English ‘business language’ courses, which have been popular.
But despite this, a report this month from the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council found P.E.I. has the worst immigrant retention rate in Atlantic Canada. Using tax filings, APEC found only 41 per cent of immigrants who landed in P.E.I. five years ago have remained on the Island and that 34 per cent of newcomers leave P.E.I. within the first year.
That’s why Opposition MLA Sidney MacEwen says the province needs to produce its promised population strategy.
“We have a government that isn’t even tracking their retention rate, they don’t have a population strategy out yet, and they haven’t had one in many years,” MacEwen said.
“One of their main planks since they’ve been elected is recruitment and retention and so far it’s been pretty bad.”
Once PNP deposits are defaulted, the money becomes revenue for the province. Government also keeps interest accrued from the over $176 million currently being held in escrow by IIDI in PNP deposits.
Last year, government made over $5 million on PNP defaults alone – an increase of $3.8 million over the previous year.
Overall, the province generated $10.5 million in revenue from PNP defaults, interest and program fees in 2015-16.
MacPherson says some of this money is used for settlement services.
MacEwen says he hopes government will develop better measures to encourage more immigrants to make P.E.I. their permanent home.
HTTPS://Twitter.com/GuardianTeresa
