P.E.I. auditor general will do full review of immigrant fund

P.E.I.'s Provincial Nominee Program, at the centre of a controversy about how immigrants' money is being invested, will be subject to a full review by the province's auditor general.

In the five months before the PNP was closed down on Sep. 2, about 2,000 potential immigrants put up $200,000 each for visas to come to Canada, pending health and security checks. In the last week serious questions have been raised about where that money was invested, and the involvement of companies owned by government MLAs.

Auditor General Colin Younker said earlier this week he would review some background material on the program, and on Thursday announced a full audit. In a news release, Innovation Minister Richard Brown welcomed the announcement.

"Government has full confidence in the work of the auditor general, who has a solid record of helping to improve the delivery of programs," said Brown.

Opposition outraged

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives accuse the Liberal government of completely mishandling the interests of immigrants in the PNP.

'Here is a group of people who believed in starting a new life in Prince Edward Island.' — Opposition leader Olive Crane

Opposition leader Olive Crane told CBC News on Thursday she's outraged in particular by the plight of a group Chinese immigrants who felt they had to hold a sit-in at the PEI Business Development Inc. office in order to get government officials to pay attention to their concerns.6

"Here is a group of people who believed in starting a new life in Prince Edward Island, who invested in their future, who came to the province bringing all kinds of knowledge and skill sets and lived here with us for the last year, and met all of the requirements of a program, and this is how they were treated? It is just deplorable," said Crane.

Crane is looking forward to what the auditor general has to say about the program.

Good program, bad optics: Ghiz

Premier Robert Ghiz is already on the record as saying he understands how government MLAs owning companies receiving money from the PNP does not look good, and reiterated that concern again Thursday. But he said the program was a success both in attracting immigrants to the province and raising capital for Island businesses.

'The conflict of interest commissioner is not someone I am going to question.' — Premier Robert Ghiz

"Prior to 2004, 2003 we used to have a little over 100 immigrants coming to Prince Edward Island," said Ghiz.

"Last year alone we had over 1,000."

Ghiz said he had concerns from the start about the involvement of government MLAs, but decided it was best left up to the conflict of interest commissioner, who cleared their access to the funds.

"The conflict of interest commissioner is not someone I am going to question," said Ghiz.

"Obviously the optics are not great but at the end of the day MLAs are still allowed to have a job."

Ghiz said he also welcomed the investigation of the auditor general, saying the province was planning a new, similar program, and Younker's input would be useful.