Nominee Program: Side Door and Immigrant Companies

nominee program: Immigration lawyers have criticized the ownership stream of the provincial nominee program as a side door to entering the country, with over half of last year's participants losing their 150,000 deposit to the province after they didn't open a business, according to CTV. The Island Investment Development Inc., which holds the deposits for the newcomers' businesses, indicates 18 million in net revenues over the past year came from immigrant companies that defaulted on their obligation to create a business. James Aylward, the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, said in an interview Friday that the province has shown an unwillingness to review or reform the program due to millions of dollars in forfeited deposits it currently receives from immigrants who don't ultimately open a business. The figure is roughly equivalent to half of the province's additional budget for infrastructure this year. Of the remaining 92, so far about a third closed after their mandatory 12 months of operation. The province says 177 of the 296 nominees -- 56 per cent -- never opened a business at all, while a further 10 per cent didn't fulfil some conditions of their escrow agreement and forfeited their deposits. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.