Rural towns wrestle with stacks of PNP applications

Some smaller communities in rural P.E.I. are struggling to manage the workload they've taken on as endorsing communities for the provincial nominee program.

The P.E.I. office of immigration has signed agreements with 14 communities, towns or cities across rural P.E.I. since Novemberto participate in the PNPbusiness impact program as endorsing communities.

Places such as Montague, Summerside and Kensingtonhave since been receiving business plans andmeeting with immigration agents and potentialapplicants interested in setting up or investing in businesses in their communities.

Andrew Daggett, chief administrative officer forMontague, said the community is grateful for the opportunity to attract new business development, but he is surprised by the amount of interest the townhas received.

"It's been a little overwhelming," Daggettsaid. "It got to the point where keeping hard copies is not something I'm doing anymore simply because it's so much paperwork."

Daggettsaid he's looked at over 30 files, met with 20 applicants and endorsed approximately 15 candidates.

"It's one of those things where it's a blessing and a curse, both, because the smaller areas need the immigration, we need people moving into the area and businesses in the area," Daggett said. "But we're the ones least capable of handling all the extra workload that's being put on us."

He added that in order to get an endorsement from a community on P.E.I., an applicant has to make a trip to the Island to meet with representatives from that community and present their business plan.

"It's fairly time consuming, each client is probably takingbetween the interview and the paperworka couple hours, two and a half hours, which doesn't seem like much except when you're dealing with five a week,"Daggettexplained. "That gets a little overwhelming."

New target areas for immigrants

In November of last year, the provincial government announced it would partner withcommunities outside of Charlottetown, Cornwall and Stratford to endorseimmigrants applying to come to the Island.

The office of immigration also changed itsprocess for assessingPNPapplicationsearlier this year. The new expression of interest model awards applicants pointsbased on their skills, language abilities, business plans, as well as endorsements fromcommunities on P.E.I.

The new model awards applicants with an endorsement from a rural community35 points. Applicants who receiveendorsements from Charlottetown, Stratford or Cornwall are awarded 10 points.

If a potential applicant receives an endorsement from a community,their application is sentto the provincefor further review and thehighest-scoring candidates will then receive an invitation to submit an application to the P.E.I.PNP.

Time consuming process

GeoffBaker, chief administrative officer for Kensington,said the process is going well and he's hostedmeetings with over a dozen candidates interested in coming to the community.

"It's probably a little more interest than we had anticipated and obviously scheduling meetings and reviewing applications and things of that nature has consumed quite a bit of time," he said.

Bakersaid he is the only staff member in Kensington dedicated to the PNPprogram and although the process is going well, it's added to his already full work schedule.

"I've been at this for about three weeks and I've got a file that's four inches thick," Baker said. "It is a facet of our operation that we've never had to deal with before. So we're slowly getting our head wrapped around what sort of time we're going to be dealing with and how we're going to manage within that."

Meanwhile, other endorsing communities saidthey would like to see more applications submitted to their offices. O'Leary Mayor Eric Gavin said he'ssent out one endorsement so far and he's hoping to give out several more.

"I'd like to see 50," Gavin said. "Honestly, truly, even more than that if it's possible."

More settlement services needed

Daggettsaid Montague has representativesfrom thePEI Association of Newcomers to Canada working attown hall twice a week, but he can foresee the town needing more support for settlement services once newcomers startto arrive.

"We're probably going to need more staff like that when this all rolls out," Daggett said. "From our point we'll be trying to make those first contacts, finding them where to live, where they're going to do their business."

A representative from the office of immigration saidendorsing communities are responsible for settlement in co-operation with the various settlement service organizations across the province. They added that the province's role is to ensure immigrants have all the information they need about moving to P.E.I. and are adhering to the agreement they signunder theprogram.

Although the last six weeks have been a time crunch, Dagget said, things do seem to be slowing down.

"We're getting a lot more selective," hesaid. "I think as we go it will get better, we'll learn from what we're doing, we'll learn where we need to be more selective and hopefully in the end we'll still be getting clients, but we'll be getting clients that are better suited for our area and that really fill a gap that we've recognized."

In a written statement toCBC, the office of immigration said theinterest the communities are seeing isa positive sign that the changes it'smade are having the desired effect.

The statement added that endorsing communities are "not required to meet a quota of any kind under the program" and have the flexibility to determine how manyfiles to review and process.

The office of immigration said itwill continue to work with municipalities throughout the endorsement process.

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