Agents earn tens of millions through P.E.I. immigrant investor fund

Last week's provincial auditor general's report shows one small group of people received more money under the provincial nominee program than all the Island businesses put together.

Under the nominee program, immigrant investors put up $200,000 each to become Canadian citizens, pending health and security checks by Immigration Canada. That money was divided among three groups:

• The provincial government, for a trust fund to repay rejected immigrants and for administrative fees.
• Island businesses received money for a purchase of shares.
• Agents and intermediaries received a fee for scouting out the potential immigrants and helping them through the PNP process.

In addition to the $200,000, there were further fees and deposits payable to the government, including deposits for learning English or French and for retaining a residence on P.E.I. for a year.

Only seven companies, known as intermediaries, are approved to do that work, and they received the biggest portion of the PNP money: in the past two years of the $525 million put up by potential immigrants, businesses received $120 million for investment, while the intermediaries earned $144 million.

"The intermediary structure was put in place by the previous administration," Innovation Minister Allan Campbell told CBC News on Friday.

"I know that there were a number of other people who had approached the previous administration with respect to their interest in becoming an intermediary, and the number of intermediaries was frozen in 2006 by the former minister. Certainly, it's a sizable amount of money."

Six Charlottetown-based companies and one Halifax company are listed as intermediaries on the provincial government website.

• Arsenault Best Cameron Ellis
• Canadian International Capital Inc.
• Confederation Capital Inc.
• H.P. Consultants
• Island Business Initiatives Inc.
• MacPherson Roche Smith & Associates
• P.E.I. Equity Alliance

Focus on finding immigrants

Mike Currie, the development minister under the Progressive Conservatives, was in charge of the nominee program until the government changed in 2007. He said his focus was not on recruiting agents, but with bringing immigrants with investment money to P.E.I, and money in the hands of Island businesses.

CBC News was not able to reach any of the seven intermediaries for comment on the work they did to earn their paycheques under the PNP. The auditor general's report says the intermediaries hired foreign agents to scout for people to come to P.E.I., and then helped the immigrants cut through the red tape to become Canadians.

Campbell said he's reviewing the whole nominee program, including the role of the people who helped find potential immigrants.