Is another corrupt PNP scandal now operating in PEI?
Last week, I received a call from a person I consider “reliable,” informing me that a recent immigrant to PEI told him that he was able to get his federal Permanent Canadian Residency status thanks to the PEI government, through a quite elaborate scheme orchestrated by some PEI Immigration consultants and their companies. What my source heard shocked him, and although skeptical, was able to verify it was true after speaking with an Island Immigration Intermediary. Here’s how the scheme works.
An Island business (I wasn’t informed which one) was paid $30,000 by an Island Immigration Agent (I wasn’t informed which Island Intermediary) to simply offer him a job and pretend he was working for his company if ever questioned. Then the immigrant provided the Intermediary with $170,000 to cover the costs of the job, including his own salary, his employee contributions and taxes, as well as all the employer’s deductions and costs.
I thought this was pretty-far out there to be honest, but I trusted my source enough to pass this information on to a reputable local journalist.
Then on Sunday, (September 16, 2019) I received an email from my initial source with a link to a CBC article and a note saying: “This is what I’m talking about.”
After reading that investigative report, there is now absolutely no doubt in my mind that what I was told about another corrupt PNP scam operating in PEI is sadly true.
CBC Reporter Geoff Leo broke the story on Saturday (September 15, 2019) titled: “Toronto immigration firm charges $170K for fake Canadian job,”
Geoff Leo’s Investigation of PNP Immigration Fraud
Posing as a wealthy foreign national seeking permanent residency in Canada – and with the help of a translator – Mr. Leo established a relationship with a Toronto-based immigration consulting company, WonHonTa Consulting Inc., and eventually received a job offer proposal costing $170,000 for a bogus job, an amount explained as needed to cover the “Canadian employer’s fee, the paper trail, and their own wage.”
The owner of WonHonTa suggested either Saskatchewan or Atlantic provinces for the provincial nominee application:
Song recommended the undercover journalist consider either Saskatchewan or Atlantic Canada because the qualification requirements are low and the wait times are short. He said it’s $180,000 for a job in Saskatchewan or $170,000 for the Atlantic provinces.
The reporter was told that WonHonTa had placed more than
The following information in the CBC article grabbed my attention:
Erica Stanley, an immigration consultant in Charlottetown, told CBC she’s been flooded with calls from foreign nationals looking for an employment offer. “So, just the volume of phone calls is ridiculous. And my inbox is full of website inquiries,” Stanley said. “They’re like, ‘Well, we’re willing to pay.’ I said, ‘Oh I’m sure you are but it’s illegal to do that.’ ‘Oh, but everybody’s doing it.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s nice, then you can find someone else who can do it.'”
I know Erica very well. When I was the Executive Director of the PEI Association for Newcomers to Canada from 2000-2010, Erica was the Coordinator of our Community Outreach Program for most of that time, before she left to work with international students at UPEI. She later moved into the immigration consultant business (Mazu Consortium Ltd) and is currently one of the 12 intermediaries authorized to submit PNP nominations to the PEI government.
Below is a list of the twelve (12) immigration companies or “intermediaries,” but first a bit of background – up until recently, there were only seven (7) intermediaries:
On June 28/17, under the former Liberal government, Executive Council authorized Island Investment Development Inc. (IIDI) to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to expand and designate up to 10 Island agents for a five-year term. In the end, 12 companies were granted “intermediary” status.
For reasons I’m not privy to, HP Consultants was dropped from the initial seven (Henry Philips currently has a lawsuit against the PEI government regarding this matter) and six new companies were added to the original list. The current intermediaries are as follows:
I have full confidence that Ms. Stanley would never be involved in such an unethical and illegal scam, and her quick assessment that what she is continually being solicited to do by would-be immigrants is “illegal,” – and her candid discussion with Geoff Leo about that solicitation – bears that out.
However, there are eleven other companies feeding PNP nominations to the PEI government, and it would appear one or more of them are involved in this PNP corruption. I was told by my source that there is such a shortage of skilled construction workers that the Intermediaries are choosing occupations in this sector to expedite processing times and avoid scrutiny.
Little is apparently being done to follow-up on worker applicants by Canadian Immigration officials – both federal and provincial – but the statistics with those audits and reviews that have occurred should definitely have raised enough red flags for government to take action to put an end to this corrupt practice, at both federal and provincial levels:
“21 of the 33 files chosen for review found the applicants were not working for the employer or had never worked for the employer.”
It is important to understand that there are actually several different PNP programs or “streams” under which workers can come to PEI and become Permanent Canadian Residents: the one that allows this particular scheme to operate in PEI is called the “Atlantic Immigration Pilot”.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot
This federal program was launched in March 2017 in all four Atlantic provinces, and has just recently been extended for another 2 years, so it’s really no longer a “pilot” project. It is an employer-driven program that facilitates the hiring of foreign workers. All principal applicants arriving in Canada under the pilot program must have a job offer from a designated employer.
How many designated businesses for the Atlantic Immigration Pilot exist in PEI?
A CBC article published October, 2018 stated that: “More than 200 companies on P.E.I. are now designated to apply to hire foreign nationals under the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program (AIPP).” The PEI government needs to make public an updated list of those designated companies, and I suspect there will now be many more companies on the list.
It would be interesting to see exactly how many of the total number of designated businesses are “newly registered companies”and bona fide businesses, and how many are doing little or no business beyond offering bogus jobs to wealthy foreigners so they can become Permanent Residents of Canada, and receiving extremely lucrative sums for doing essentially no work.
Immediate PEI Government Action Required
As you can see from the most recent Annual Report of Island Investment Development Inc., there are really only about 4-5 hundred Atlantic Immigration Pilot files that would need to be investigated.
And by “investigate,” I mean sending someone to the workplace (multiple times if necessary) to discover whether the person is actually working for the company as stated on the paperwork – which we can assume will all be in perfect order, and “technically” meeting all the terms and conditions stipulated for the program. As the Immigration consultant told Geoff Leo:
“For Immigration Canada, they are understaffed,” Liu said. “The massive size of the country makes it impossible to pull resources for site visits just to find out if you are actually working at this company.” However, in the unlikely event that an immigration official makes an unexpected site visit to see if the foreign national is at work, Liu said the employer would say the worker was out of the office on business.
A less comprehensive and extensive investigation requiring fewer resources and time would look at just those files in the Atlantic Pilot Program processed since the PNP-Investor Program was shut down in September, 2018, as a result of fraud concerns (See: “Citing concerns, P.E.I. shutting down PNP’s immigrant entrepreneur program“).
I suspect that it was at the time that the PNP Investor stream ended that creative thinking caps were dawned to come up with a new way to keep already lined-up Investor clients happy and the big bucks flowing.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot allotment for PEI in 2018 was 220 people – a provincial annual allotment which Jamie Aiken, the executive director of P.E.I.’s Office of Immigration reported would easily be filled – so an initial investigation should focus on Atlantic Immigration Pilot files processed in the last quarter of 2018, and the first three quarters of 2019 (likely a couple of hundred people). A thorough examination of those cases would tell the tale on whether the people receiving immediate Permanent Resident status thanks to the PEI government’s nominations are actually “at the job”.
If the statistics cited in the CBC Investigation article by Geoff Leo are accurate, Atlantic Canada – and PEI – are clearly infected with this latest PNP malignancy.
The King government needs to immediately reassure Islanders that this matter will be properly dealt with by announcing some form of investigation or inquiry by an objective agent with a credible degree of independence (perhaps the RCMP) to determine the extent to which this egregious and fraudulent scheme reported by Mr. Leo is operating in PEI.
Article Comments
Anonymous
September 16, 2019 11:29 amThe PCs appear to be as greedy as the Ls.
The whole thing smells bad. I know well some island businesses that sold to a foreign person for a hefty profit.. legal but shady. Keep it up Kevin as maybe justice will prevail. Tho i have doubts
Bruce garrity
Anonymous
September 16, 2019 11:46 amPerhaps CRA should send out teams of payroll auditors to expose these alleged frauds and not just civilly prosecute them but criminally prosecute them, just a thought.
waburden
September 16, 2019 1:15 pmThis made the news on CBC this morning…. If there are not enough resources to provide oversight on any of these programs, they quite simply should never go ahead. Allowing them to do so just adds to the smell of corruption that exist in status quo politics. Just where is the equality for any Canadian Citizen when he/or she is unable to compete with any foreign national that has the wherewithall to buy a Canadian job – even if, this program is legitimate???
Ray
September 16, 2019 3:21 pmKevin , Thank you !
As Mr. Frederic Bastiat wrote in , The Law , 1800-1849 . Quote ” The Law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it The Law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose The Law became the weapon of every kind of greed ! Instead of checking crime , the Law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish ! Unquote.
The Fish rots from the head down and if the Prime Minister of Canada can break the Law and not be accountable it’s a fine example , and as history has shown it leads to the same outcome in every case. And it’s not a pretty thought .
Ray
Chester H. Llewellyn
September 16, 2019 5:42 pmComments already posted and no sense in repeating myself……..I am shocked at this Investigation and its forcoming information but glad Honesty, Accountability and Transparency is taking place or will soon be……I would hope that Premier Dennis King would take the lead in this regard to ensure an Honest body of work is going and if crooked then deal with it and clean up using the RCMP if necessary……..this is pure and blatent Corruption right under our noses……shameful on all those so involved……….
Beatrice McGee
September 17, 2019 11:21 amI sure hope the Premier does something about this corruption, but it is not a surprise when the couple that owned the motel got off with no criminal charges ,then you know that corruption starts at the top, if that was your regular Joe they would be in jail… crooked Governments
Boon
September 18, 2019 4:49 amApathy is a dreadful way to lose a country and apathy is the source of the problem. There are always such people in societies, they are always known. It is the responsibility of the majority to ensure they themselves are not complicit through silence, indifference, bullying or imagined personal gain. It is the responsibility of every Islander to talk about, act on and weed out dishonest people and to protect what is ours by inheritance to pass on to the next generation. Constantly accusing government of not taking on all of our responsibilities doesn’t have a great future. At least not for Islanders. Please, rock the boat while we still have one.