CHARLOTTETOWN -- The list of beneficiaries of P.E.I.'s troubled immigration nominee program shows numerous Island business owners received funds for multiple companies despite rules that prohibited this.
The list also shows non-profit organizations benefited from the program even though non-profits were not eligible under its rules.
Innovation Minister Allen Roach would not comment Wednesday, just a day after the province released the names of 1,300 corporations that received money.
The Provincial Nominee Program matched immigrant investors to Island companies, but it was later learned that immigrants were not taking an active role in the companies in which they invested.
The list supports many of the problems identified by the auditor general in his 2009 investigation into the program.
For example, it shows eight companies in which one Charlottetown businessman is listed as a director on the P.E.I. corporate registry -- an apparent violation of PNP rules that companies whose primary shareholders received units for a business would not be eligible for more money through other companies.
