Nova Scotia offers refunds of mentorship fees

Immigration to Nova Scotia is heading for bad times. Job market here is not half as good as in Ontario or British Columbia. The government is trying is best, but there are simply no jobs here.

Immigrants, who qualify under point based system are simply not interested to move here. Those who fail to find place under the point based system, shell out upto $130,000 under Nova Scotia provincial nominee program’s (PNP’s) economic stream fast-tracked program to get permanent resident status.

The six month mentorship program designed to provide newcomers to the province with an opportunity to gain some exposure to the Canadian workplace with minimum assured $20,000 a year has failed to make immigrants stay here.

But with a soft economy and no industry here, immigrants who came to Nova Scotia under the economic stream had a hard time finding mentorships with local businesses. Those who did find placements were often working well below their experience level getting poor remuneration.

Of the $130,000 program fee, $100,000 went to the mentoring business and $30,000 went to administration fees, including a $20,000 immigration consultant fee.

Apparently on the face of it, this program appears attractive as against PNP to Manitoba under business or entrepreneurial streams, which requires a minimum investment in a current or new business of up to $400,000 or to make a good faith deposit with the provincial government, usually about $100,000, which the immigrant gets back when the business investment is made.

In Nova Scotia, payout is lower but here immigrant doesn’t end up owning part of the company in which he has invested $100,000.

Most immigrants who did find mentorships are petitioning the government for a refund of the difference between the $100,000 and what the mentorship paid. In fact the mentorship program appears a scam by unscrupulous businesses as there are many cases where immigrants claim that mentors tell them to stay home because there isn’t any work for them.

Nova Scotia needs to redesign the economic stream into an entrepreneurial stream that will more closely resemble that of other provinces, especially Manitoba.

The province had about 2,585 landings in 2006 and aims to reach 3,600 annual landings by 2010, seems to be headed for trouble unless it takes some extreme steps to provide employment and settlement to new incomers