RCMP to probe immigration program

The provincial attorney-general has asked the RCMP to investigate parts of the New Brunswick government's immigration program.

But Paul Harpelle, spokesman for Attorney-General Marie-Claude Blais, won't say what part of the Provincial Nominee Program is being investigated.

"What I can confirm is that on Monday, Nov. 7, the deputy attorney-general referred several complaints to the RCMP regarding the Provincial Nominee Program," he said, declining to discuss the nature of the complaints.

"Of course, as a result of filing these complaints and the investigation that will follow, we have no further comment at this time."

Problems with Chinese pilot project

The Alward government shut down a pilot project under the program last weekafter it was criticized by the auditor general.

"There was kind ofbad things," the minister responsible, Martine Coulombe, minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, said last week, explaining why she shut it down.

Under the pilot project, Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs deposited $60,000 in a fund and the money was to be invested in a New Brunswick business venture with a local partner.

The provincial government would then help fast-track the application with the federal immigration department and the money was to be repaid once the applicants settled and started businesses in the province.

The auditor general found the province had no system in place to track how many participants stayed in New Brunswick and therefore deserved to get their deposits back.

As part of an agreement with Ottawa, the provincial government was supposed to monitor the nominees for three years.

The fund, worth up to an estimated $11-million, is now being dissolved and the 180 applicants still in the system must apply for refunds. They can submit new applications under a different nominee program.

The federal government has capped the number of nominees nationally, because of problems with several of the provincial programs.