Millionaire immigrants invest in Quebec — and then move on to B.C.

[Gululu]

Millionaire immigrants invest in Quebec — and then move on
Just under 10% of investor immigrants under provincial program still there 5 years later
By Susan Lunn, CBC News Posted: Dec 10, 2013 12:09 PM ET

The vast majority of millionaire immigrants who come to Canada through Quebec's immigrant investor program do not stay in that province, allowing Quebec to keep millions in job creation dollars while other provinces carry the costs of settlement.

Numbers from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, obtained by a Vancouver immigration lawyer, show that 90 per cent of those immigrants are not living in Quebec when they re-apply for permanent resident visas five years later.


Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland says other provinces are bearing settlement costs for investor immigrants who arrive in Quebec and then move on, while that province gets the benefit of job creation funds. (CBC)

Richard Kurland said there has been anecdotal evidence for years that those millionaire immigrants instead go west to British Columbia.

He paid the federal government to search its own database to determine how many of those immigrants are still in Quebec. As it turns out, only around 10 per cent are still in the province.

Quebec is the only province to run its own immigrant investor program. It is identical to the federal one — which was suspended in June 2012 — in which an applicant pays $800,000 and must also demonstrate a net worth of more than $1 million.

The $800,000 is returned after five years, without interest, but in the meantime is invested in job creation.

Under the federal program, money is split evenly between Ottawa and the province of destination. But under its own program, Quebec keeps all of the money for job creation.

'A matter of fairness'

Kurland said the current setup isn't working.

"What happened here is an abuse of Canada's immigration program, the design failed," he told CBC News.

Kurland said it's unfair to the other provinces where the millionaire investors do eventually settle, such as B.C.

"It's British Columbia that needs to take care of the health needs, the education, the subsidized university," he said.

Kurland said one possible solution is to have immigrants in the program file a tax return from the province they promised to live in for a few years upon arrival. If they move, they must wait longer to get their $800,000 refunded.

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander issued a statement Monday saying his department is looking at the issue.

"If someone applies to immigrate to a particular province, that is where they are undertaking to reside. While we respect provincial jurisdiction, as a matter fairness, we cannot send federal transfer payments to one province for someone living in another.

"That saddles the other provinces with unfair resettlement costs, such as health care and education," the statement said, adding. "This is a matter in which we are actively engaged."

Millionaire immigrants invest in Quebec ? and then move on - Politics - CBC News

No surprise here

[4444]

Canadian citizenship sells for $60k, nice one Canada!

(60k = 800k invested in risk free treasuries (5 yr term which yields 1.5% or so), compounded for 5 years)

[Marshall Placid]

The obvious benefactor seem to be... Quebec.

I would love CBC or the Federal Government to conduct research on what those resettled immigrants (from Quebec to BC and other provinces) contribute to the resident provinces.

Perhaps, those resettled immigrants opened new businesses in the new provinces, or started working there, or had more kids, or enriched the new provinces.

After all, the immigrants do have to do SOMETHING.

They would spend money and get taxed, work and get taxed, open new businesses and create jobs (and also get taxed), etc.

It depends on the median age of the immigrants.

But, 90% of immigrants moving out of Quebec is an alarming rate in any sense of "emigration" out of Quebec.

[rsx]

How the hell do they not have a system to make sure there's no imbalance? It's like a bunch of highschool students doing a patchwork project for social studies.

[320icar]

So can we fucking kick Quebec out of Canada yet? Goddamn...
Posted via RS Mobile

[CorneringArtist]

Originally Posted by 320icar

So can we fucking kick Quebec out of Canada yet? Goddamn...
Posted via RS Mobile

Not unless they stay economically tied to Canada...oh wait they can still pull in revenue if they separated and continued the program. Keep the wealthy immigrants there and see if they learn French at all.

[MG1]

Quebec and fairness cannot be in the same sentence. Equality to them is when they get more than the rest of the country.

[DJ Milk]

Maybe the investor immigrants don't want to learn French because it's weird

[BrRsn]

maybe they don't wanna learn french because it's the language of defeat

Spoiler!

[urrh]

Originally Posted by MG1

Quebec and fairness cannot be in the same sentence. Equality to them is when they get more than the rest of the country.

also women's logic on equality