Manitoba Election: Liberals will make a major change to improve the Provincial Nominee Program

Today, at the Philippine-Canadian Centre of Manitoba, Roldan Sevillano, our candidate in Tyndall Park and I announced that we would make a significant change to the Provincial Nominee Program, a program created in 1996 under Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, which is designed to bring skilled workers and entrepreneurs to Manitoba.  We were joined by Pablito Sarinas, our candidate in The Maples (photos above).

Under the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program an applicant must show proof that he or she has CDN $10,000 worth of assets.  This is intended to ensure the successful settlement of the immigrant in Canada.

Until 2009, applicants had the option to establish trust funds in Canada to fulfill this financial requirement.  In 2009, the NDP government revoked this option.   Considering the vast disparity between average incomes in Canada and in countries like India and the Philippines, Manitoba Liberals feel this unfairly disadvantages skilled applicants from the developing world.

We announced today that Manitoba Liberals will reverse the NDP decision and expand an existing mechanism of the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program available to business applicants.  This will allow Manitoba families to provide the required settlement funds on behalf of their loved ones by placing it in trust with the provincial government.  These funds will then be repaid to the successful applicants upon their arrival in Manitoba.  We propose an initial disbursement of $5,000 be given upon arrival, followed by $1,000 each for the following five months. The interest gained on these deposits will serve as the administrative fee, just as it does for the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program for Business.

See our full platform at: http://mlp.manitobaliberals.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Strong-Families-Healthy-Communities-Platform.pdf