Auditor general’s report uncovers ‘phantom agents,’ other irregularities
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
The RCMP is reviewing five files from an ill-fated provincial immigration program, including payments to a lawyer who apparently didn’t do any work on behalf of some immigrants, and how the program operator seems to have used immigration fees to buy into a [...]
Robyn Young, Metro Halifax
The province should go after $50,000 that was earned by companies who failed to give adequate business mentorships to newcomers, says NDP immigration critic Leonard Preyra.
“In one case the business was closed during the time the nominee was supposed to do her mentorship,” said the Halifax MLA.
The woman was placed at the [...]
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
The MacDonald government had a report detailing glaring problems with an immigration program well before the auditor general tabled his assessment this week.
Cabinet ministers and government officials haven’t fully revealed publicly the extent of the problems, even though the internal analysis was done a month before a two-hour session last October [...]
Under controversial scheme, newcomers paid $130,500 each to be fast-tracked through immigration process
OLIVER MOORE
June 12, 2008
HALIFAX — A controversial program that admitted immigrants willing to pay for pricey job placements had minimal oversight and many of the participating companies were ineligible under the government’s own rules, Nova Scotia’s Auditor-General said yesterday.
Jacques Lapointe said that 14 [...]
Auditor general rips mentor program
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
Another group of immigrants who took part in a troubled provincial program could each receive thousands in refunds, Immigration Minister Len Goucher announced Wednesday.
The news came just hours after auditor general Jacques Lapointe submitted an interim report that is scathing in its assessment of the economic stream [...]
MR. LEONARD PREYRA: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Immigration. His government boasts that our immigration retention rate has gone up to about 63 per cent, from a dismal 48 per cent in 2001. New Brunswick and Manitoba are about our size, have the same sort of resource-based economies and [...]
MacKay hands out $10 million for language, skills training
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
Services that help immigrants learn English, find work and adapt to their new country are getting a $10-million federal boost over the next three years.
The money will help provide more language training at the Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre, where one of the programs [...]