Nova Scotia seeks auditors to prevent business immigration fraud

Auditors would check net worth, finances of immigrants in business stream

By Paul Withers, CBC News Posted: Jan 08, 2016 6:20 AM AT Last Updated: Jan 08, 2016 6:20 AM AT

Nova Scotia Immigration Minister Lena Diab says immigration is key to growing the economy, but so is preventing fraud. (CBC)

The Nova Scotia government is hiring auditors to prevent fraud in its two new business immigration streams.

The provincial government may hire up to eight audit firms for "integrity" testing of its programs to attract entrepreneur immigrants, which began Jan. 1, according to the tender. 

The official request for auditors warns, "Fraud and misrepresentation is common in business immigration."

Competition for the tender closes Friday.

"This is a broader message of how seriously we take the inherent risks in business immigration," said Suzanne Ley, executive director of the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration. 

Auditors will be used to ensure immigrant entrepreneurs meet various financial tests, such as a minimum net worth of $600,000, she said Thursday.

"We see it as a very serious thing. We want to make sure those people who are coming to Nova Scotia truly want to come to Nova Scotia and make their life here," Ley said.

"It's about integrity."

Auditors to oversee business finances

Permanent residency status will be granted only after entrepreneurs successfully operate a business for two years, according to a document outlining the business stream criteria.

Those entrepreneurs must make a minimum $150,000 capital investment in Nova Scotia, the outline said.

Auditors must sign off on the viability of the business and check to see it meets a performance agreement each applicant will be required to sign.

Immigrant entrepreneurs will choose from a list of audit firms and they must pay the fees. Nova Scotia is not charging fees itself for the program, but will monitor what participants are charged by the firms.

Government fees for other provincial business immigration streams typically cost around $5,000, Ley said.

"We think it will be a comparable price for applicants. They will be paying it to a third party with expertise," she said.

Immigrants 'critical' to economic future

The program allows Nova Scotia to select 100 entrepreneur immigrants for Canadian citizenship each year.

Immigration Minister Lena Diab says the province lobbied long and hard to convince Ottawa to allow it to set up two new streams: entrepreneurs and international graduate entrepreneurs. 

Graduate entrepreneurs — educated at a Nova Scotia post-secondary institution — must own and operate a business in the province, which will be audited after one year. They are not required to prove net worth or make a minimum investment.

"Growing our economy is critical to Nova Scotia," Diab said. "Having entrepreneurs come to Nova Scotia to start businesses or … buying existing businesses is critical."

Audit firms may have contract for up to six years

The oversight measures are the result of an extensive research, the provincial government said. 

The immigration office will do its own assessment of business plans by entrepreneurs at the outset of the process, as well. 

Its search for auditors has been broken into two separate requests for proposals.

An earlier one was for up to three companies to verify entrepreneurs meet the minimum net worth test.

The request closing Friday is for five firms for an initial three-year period, with another three year possible renewal.

Read the full criteria for business stream immigration applicants.

The Source:http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/auditors-business-immigration-fraud-1.3394406

Comment:
"Delivering economic immigration programs

The attached article from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation details Canada’s latest failure to deliver on an economic immigration program.

Ottawa has not delivered on any economic immigration program since May 1986.

Since 1986, the Immigration Act has always had a singular standard in defining a economic immigrant. This ongoing standard is presently enshrined as Section 12 of the Immigration Act. Section 12 states that the sole condition required by an economic immigrant applicant is to prove that he, or she, can become successfully economically established in Canada.

Since May 1986, Ottawa has believed that the best way to vet prospective economic immigrants is to develop programs with detailed conditions and then expect the administrative process to figure out which overseas applicants will meet the condition of Section 12 and become successfully economically established.

The 30 year project has failed.

Each of the below economic immigration programs died in a ignominious cloud of backlogs, fraudulent intent by overseas applicants and a refusal to give priority to those already successfully established in Canada.

•          The family business program

•          The entrepreneur program

•          The investor program  

•          The LMO program

•          The Federal Skilled Worker program

•          The Federal Skilled Trades Worker program 

•          The Canadian Experience Class program

Ottawa has never explained its counter intuitive obsession in punishing applicants who have actually become successfully economically established in Canada.

In any event, it no longer makes sense to pretend that hard working immigration officers can hold back the flow of overseas applicants who lie like hell in order to become Canadians of convenience.

    

Since May 1986, well trained, highly capable Immigration staff have spent most of their time assessing the backgrounds of program applicants who have no track record of establishing themselves in Canada. Against their subjective assessments, the officers know that most of the successful applicants will never become successful immigrants. Many will go on to either leave or exploit Canada. Statistics don’t lie. The Asia Pacific Foundation confirms that 52% of immigrants leave Canada. The Fraser Institute confirms that those immigrants who remain in Canada bleed social services, annually, in the mid 11 figure range.    

Is there a solution to three decades of failure? 

Yes.

The first step is allow immigration officers in Canada to reward the reality of de facto successful economic establishment.

The second step is to give Canada Border Services some money allowing the agency to build up better data bases of inland successfully established applicants and their employers.

The third step is to decide whether 3, 4 or 5 years of successful tax paying establishment should be the ticket to permanent residency.

The forth step is to decide whether applicants with 3, 4 or 5 years of successful tax paying establishment should simply become citizens without going through the landed immigrant stage. 

The fifth step will be to decide the terms which would allow applicants to stay here for the 3, 4 or 5 year period during which they can prove themselves.

Through its Canada Experience Class and FSTP programs, Ottawa has already taken some tentative steps towards the recognition of de facto successful economic establishment. The experiment failed because there was no commitment to make the concept succeed.  

The time has come to either fish or cut bait."

Richard Boraks, January 12 2016