Nick Noorani Website

The Nova Scotia government is ready to give refunds to more of the newcomers who came to Canada as a result of a failed immigration scheme.
The government’s about-face came Wednesday, hours after provincial Auditor General Jacques Lapointe released a scathing report on the business mentorship program.
Immigration Minister Len Goucher expects about 110 people will be eligible for a refund because they still live in Nova Scotia.

“When people entered Canada under the mentorship program, the intent was to have them come to Nova Scotia, not to go to Vancouver or Toronto or Calgary,” Goucher said. “If they haven’t registered, we presume them to have forfeited.”
Leo Karaunanayake, who emigrated from Sri Lanka, said he is hopeful he qualifies for a refund but cautious.
Under the business mentorship program, newcomers paid $130,000 to be placed with a company. They got paid at least $20,000, with businesses getting up to $80,000 to cover costs. About $30,000 went to cover program fees.
Karaunanayake said he was supposed to work at a Halifax restaurant for six months but was told not to show up. Others complained they were given low-level jobs.
Karaunanayake and more than 200 other people who went through the program were told last fall they didn’t qualify for the $100,000 refund that hundreds of other applicants who were accepted into the program but never matched with a mentor received.
Program flawed from start: auditor
According to the auditor general, the program was flawed from the moment the province signed a contract with Cornwallis Financial to run it.
“The contract itself as it was drawn up was deficient, and once implemented, the contract was not well managed,” said Lapointe.
Cornwallis Financial ran the program until 2006, when the province did not renew its contract and directly took it over. The private firm has since filed a lawsuit over the termination.
Lapointe found that less than half of the participants received a six-month mentorship as expected, and most businesses tested during the audit didn’t meet minimum requirements.
He is also unhappy with the government for withholding information during the audit, saying he received blanked-out documents, incomplete information and, in many cases, no information at all from the Department of Justice, Office of Immigration and cabinet.
The province cites lawyer-client privilege or cabinet confidentially as reasons for withholding information.
But Lapointe said that constitutes undue interference with his office and its mandate to report to the Nova Scotia house of assembly.
No refund details
Meanwhile, Goucher is not ready to say how the latest refund plan will work, though he says there’s enough money in a trust fund to pay everyone eligible.
Those who qualify could end up getting $100,000 minus whatever they were paid as a salary.
“It’s still premature,” Goucher said. “What I wanted to make sure was that we get word out to the eligible nominees that the government will be moving forward on a program, and we’ll have more information on that as soon as we can get it to you.”
The minister said he’ll wait for a final report by the auditor general, due in the fall.
NDP immigration critic Leonard Preyra wants the government to move now.
“It’s a policy decision, and there’s no reason why the minister cannot proceed with providing refunds at this stage,” Preyra said.
http://www.cbc.ca/mobile/story/national/2008/06/11/immigration-lapointe?dynamicMenu=canada