New Provincial Nominee Program for PEI
by Harleen Kaur - February 10, 2011
Canada, 10th February: A new immigrant Provincial Nominee Program will be announced by the PEI government soon.
This was announced by Allan Campbell, Innovation Minister.
The new program is going to be introduced for the potential immigrant investors in Prince Edward Island in a span of one month, Campbell informed after holding detailed discussion with Canada immigration department, CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada).
The PNP (Provincial Nominee Program) provides fast-track Canada visas to immigrants willing to make investments of $200,000 in PEI.
The aim of this immigration program is to allow increased number of immigrants into the province. The earlier immigrant investor program worked between 2001 and 2008 but ran into controversy after 2,000 immigrant investors were allowed in the year 2008.
The PNP had run into controversies following which a probe was conducted by the auditor general and a review by the RCMP.
The investigations revealed a serious flaw in the PNP by PEI. Colin Younker, the auditor general behind the investigations lashed senior government officials for failing to abide by the rules and for playing with the rules by approving businesses that were not qualified to be accepted under this program. And now, it’s ready to make a comeback.
Speaking about the PNP, Campbell said that it had proved beneficial for PEI and revealed that the CIC is happy with the new program.
Since immigration is the number one issue for Canada, hence, we must support approval of this new immigrant investor program, Campbell asserted. Canada is facing the issue of an aging population along with decreasing birth rates.
And in such a scenario, immigration in Canada and in PEI can play a vital role in sustaining the rate of population, said Campbell.
The new PNP will have a cap on the total nominations for the province annually. The number has been fixed at 400 initially and the annual target is likely to be increased after the annual cap is reached by the Canadian province, Campbell maintained.
And the immigrant investors will have the option of either making an investment of $1 million for a period of five years or to buy one-third of stake in a firm. The new rules of the PNP will allow fishermen and farmers to be covered under this program.
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