Tories’ new budget to close program giving investors path to citizenship

02/11/2014

The Conservative government is scrapping Canada’s decades-old Immigrant Investor Program in the 2014 budget, ending a path to citizenship that has been criticized for allowing foreigners to buy their way into this country without bringing sufficient long-term benefit.

The federal government, which stopped accepting new applications from would-be foreign investors in 2012, has concluded the program is not generating sufficient economic return for Canada, sources say.

The demise of the program, founded in 1986, will be announced in the 2014 budget Tuesday.

The program grants permanent residency to newcomers who make what amounts to an interest-free loan to a provincial or territorial government, money that is supposed to be used for economic development activities.

Sources say the government believes the immigrant investor class of newcomers pays significantly less taxes over the decades than other economic immigrants, have less proficiency in English or French and are less likely to actually reside in Canada than other arrivals.

In the past 28 years, more than 130,000 people have immigrated to Canada under this investor program –a figure that includes both applicants and their families.

The Conservatives, however, feel that other, newer economic-immigrant programs are doing a better job of attracting newcomers who will integrate well into Canadian society and build the economic base.

These include the Canadian Experience Class, which fast-tracks residency for temporary foreign workers already in Canada and non-Canadians who have graduated from universities and colleges here.

In recent years Canada has admitted about 3,000 immigrant investors per year through the program – or about 11,000 including their spouses and dependents.

Largely from China, Taiwan and South Korea, these newcomers’ primary destinations are Ontario and British Columbia. Federal and provincial immigration department data obtained by Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland revealed this week that there are about 45,000 wealthy Chinese on the immigrant investor program’s waiting list who are waiting to move to British Columbia alone.

Sources say that scrapping this category of immigrants will free up more room to allow in more newcomers through other economic immigrant categories which also include the new Startup Visa program, which offers permanent residency to immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to secure funding from Canadian investors.

Former immigration minister Jason Kenney complained in 2012 that the cash brought in by immigrant investors frequently ends up sitting idle on provincial government balance sheets rather than stimulating the economy. “Right now, all Canada gets from the investor immigrant program is five years of use of about $750,000,”

Mr. Kenney said in 2012. “That’s the $800,000 contribution minus commissions and fees. … It basically means that provincial governments that are getting that money are offsetting their debt service costs.”

The Globe and Mail