Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - November 2007
A business mentoring program, part of Nova Scotia’s Provincial Nominee Immigration program, was terminated amid accusations that it failed to provide many foreign workers with reliable and organized business training.
Numerous cases have come to light where participants claim that the training they received was not sufficient or did not suit their needs. The program, started in 2002, gave foreign workers a chance to have a business internship with a mentor in a Nova Scotia company for a fee of $130,000.
On Friday Nova Scotia immigration officials were grilled by the media in an attempt to explain the program and its shortcomings. The media buzz has come largely due to the province’s recent decision to refund about 60 million dollars in application fees, as well as a lawsuit being filed by one of the program’s major participating companies.
Elizabeth Mills, the executive director of the Office of Immigration, said that her office had conducted an internal review of the program, but details of the review have not become public yet. Government parties are demanding that this review be released immediately.
Fee refunds are being offered to about 600 immigrants, but there are others who had not been placed yet who will not be receiving any refund. The mentorship program ended abruptly when Cornwalis Financial Corp. was kicked out of the program and all of their files were given to the immigration office. They are currently filing a lawsuit against the province.
Mills says that it was hard to get an accurate picture of how many problems there were with the program for a long time because it started with very few matches being made between would-be immigrants and employers. However as the program gained participants, the managerial challenges became apparent and, in the end, overwhelming.
It is important to note however that there are many immigrants who reported having a positive experience with the program.
