Businesses should seek legal advice on PNP liability

[CHARLOTTETOWN, PE] - Innovation Minister Allan Campbell suggests that Island business owners who benefited from the Provincial Nominee Program should get a legal opinion if they are worried about a potential liability. If more than seven per cent of the 2,200 PNP immigrants nominated by P.E.I. still waiting in the federal queue decide their wait is too long, major questions remain about who would have to pay them back.

Campbell said his department has a legal opinion saying the provincial government and Island Investment Development Inc. (IIDI), the Crown corporation that administered the PNP, are not responsible for paying back the immigrant money.

On Tuesday in the legislature, Campbell said that opinion does not extend to the Island businesses that received immigrant investment money through the PNP. “The legal opinion that we sought was in respect to the province and IIDI,” Campbell said. “It’s not for me to determine whether there’s liability (for businesses) or not. I would expect that if there are concerns in the business community that certainly they would be bringing those concerns to their legal representation as well.”

The province’s auditor general, who recently investigated this program and found numerous discrepancies with its administration, raised concerns about immigrant waiting periods. If these are too long, the auditor surmised that at least 10 per cent of P.E.I.’s 2,200 immigrant nominees will likely withdraw their applications and want their money back. But the money has already been invested and spent. 

The province has a $9-million contingency fund for this scenario, but this is only enough for a seven per cent loss. If more than seven per cent of those still in the federal queue decide their wait is too long, there are liability concerns about who would pay the difference. 

Campbell said he received assurances from federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney that P.E.I.’s files would not take longer than 18 months to process. But in an email sent to The Guardian last week, a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada said the backlog is expected to be much longer. “We estimate it will take up to five years in some cases, as the numbers for some submissions are quite significant,” Nicolas Fortier, a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) in Ottawa, wrote to The Guardian. That’s why federal officials are now taking it upon themselves to notify P.E.I.’s PNP nominees about extended waiting periods.

Campbell said he has not yet been able to reach Kenney, but believes there must be miscommunication between the minister’s office and the bureaucrats in contact with the media. He said he believes the email to The Guardian contains only speculation on P.E.I.’s nominee estimates and is seeking further clarification from Kenney’s office. “I have no problem working closely with the federal government on our joint communication but I need some clarity as to how they want to proceed here,” he said.

As for who is ultimately responsible to pay back immigrant investment monies should more than seven per cent of P.E.I.’s 2,200 waiting nominees decide five years is too long to wait, Campbell was unclear. “I’m very confident that it isn’t going to be an issue, but if at some point down the road it gets to a point where it is going to be some kind of an issue between everybody involved I’m sure there will a lot of discussion as to who’s responsible — whether it be the intermediaries or the agents or exactly who’s responsible.”