The District of Tumbler Ridge is participating in a new program, launched in March of this year, as a way for experienced foreign entrepreneurs to gain permanent residency in British Columbia.
The Entrepreneur Immigration – Regional Pilot Program, part of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), is “intended to attract entrepreneurs to participating regional communities to establish new businesses that align with the communities’ economic development priorities.”
While the PNP has been in place for years, the Province of BC launched the Regional Pilot to encourage investment in smaller communities that are outside larger urban areas. The District of Tumbler Ridge is one of the first communities to take part in the program.
In order to qualify for the program, the business owners have to qualify. Requirements for the program include having a net worth of $300,000, willing to invest at least $100,000, must have a Canadian Language Benchmark equivalence of level 4, pay $3800 in fees, and create at least one Full-time job (or equivalent) for a local.
In order to reach the Canadian Language Benchmark Level Four, a person must be able to meet the following requirements in four categories (taken from Language.ca website). For listening, they must be able to “understand short social exchanges containing introductions, casual small talk and leave-taking; common, sequentially presented instructions and directions related to familiar, everyday situations of personal relevance; short communication intended to influence or persuade others in familiar, everyday situations; and short descriptive or narrative communication on topics of personal relevance.”
In speaking, they must be able to” Use courtesy formulas and some casual small talk, give a set of simple, instructions and directions, make and respond to a range of requests and offers, ask for and give information about needs and feelings related to common everyday activities, and give brief descriptions of personal experiences, situations or simple processes.
In reading, they should be able to understand simple personal social messages; short, simple, clearly sequenced instructions and instructional texts for familiar everyday situations; and the purpose, main idea, key information and specific details in simple short texts related to everyday familiar situations and topics.
And they should be able to write well enough to convey short, personal, informal social messages related to familiar situations, and copy or record expanded information from short texts.
Since each community is different, and the local community understands the local business environment, the foreign entrepreneur must be referred by the community.
“To that end,” says Economic Development Officer John Powell, “the BC PNP Entrepreneur Regional Pilot in Tumbler Ridge is targeting immigrant entrepreneurs who are seeking opportunities to start a tourism business in North America’s second UNESCO Global Geopark.”
Tumbler Ridge, he says, has many business opportunities for entrepreneurs in the recreation, tourism and service sectors. “These are ‘Quality of Place’ opportunities that will help to make Tumbler Ridge an even more desirable place to live, invest and visit.”
Powell says the program is getting some interest, “particularly in the accommodation and educational services sector. We’ve had one interview so far. There are a couple others in the pipeline. There’s one particular application that I’m doing further research on.”
Applicants wishing to start a business in Tumbler Ridge under the program can choose to start a business that focuses on Educational services, accommodation services, or Amusement or recreation.
Powell says these are broad categories, but deliberate. “This is an intentional aspect of the program which provides opportunities to explore many different sectoral business ideas.”
People interested in being a part of the program also need to have a business plan in place.
There are 33 communities across the province participating in the pilot program, but Tumbler Ridge is the only one in the Northeast; farther west, Mackenzie, Prince George and Terrace are also participating.
It is also one of the smallest communities in the program. Only Barriere (1763) and 100 Mile House (1980) are smaller.
To be eligible for the program, communities had to have a population of fewer than 75,000 and be located beyond 30 km of a municipality of more than 75,000 and able to demonstrate their capacity to support foreign entrepreneurs through established networks of business support and settlement agencies.
The limited category has caused some conflict at town council; Councillor Howe argues that council should have been given a chance to participate. “How did staff decide to come up with the three categories they wanted to look at,” he asks. “I’m concerned that council was not provided the opportunity to input.”
CAO Jordan Wall says the areas chosen came out of a economic development strategy that council passed last year.
While the program has some interest from outside the community, it has developed a lot of interest inside the community, CAO Jordan Wall says he’s surprised at the amount of discussion around what he calls a “fairly minor program…It’s likely we’re not going to get anyone from this program, but it was something worth trying.”
Howe says this seems like a really good opportunity into town that are required. “These three things seem to be Geopark related. Correct me if I’m wrong, but have we not painted ourself into a corner? Are these the only three things people can apply for? There are things in our community that I think we have an opportunity to branch out into. I don’t understand why we wouldn’t have gone after dental services, doctor services, technology companies, contracting businesses, mine and windmill servicing companies, manufacturing, retailing, automobile dealerships, accounting lawyers, notary publics…there’s all sorts of things that people from other countries could bring to our community. There’s other opportunities. I feel this is something none of us knew about it. It was just the economic development department looking into it and I feel a little miffed by it. I feel we missed an opportunity.”
Wall says the Educational category is not Geopark related. “It’s providing services for youth. The one applicant that is interested in Tumbler Ridge isn’t tourism related, but education related.” He says it’s not as simple as saying we’d like to have a doctor here in Tumbler Ridge, so let’s go for medical services. “You need to have training in Tumbler Ridge so someone can come in and set up. You can’t just transfer skills from one country to another and say that’s going to work.
Still, he says there might be time to change or add additional categories, and the topic will be coming before council at the next meeting.
Powell says the town has been working on this for a few weeks. “It’s something we have to be very selective on. The business has to be a good fit for Tumbler Ridge, and Tumbler Ridge has to be a good fit for them. We have to prepare them for the reality of Tumbler Ridge. I’ve talked to a few people, and said we are remote, which isn’t for everybody, and asked them if they’ve lived in a remote place before.”
Outside of encouraging foreign entrepreneurs to set up shop in smaller communities around the province, the regional pilot has four differences compared to the standard PNP. The first is that participating communities will have an active, key role in the pilot. They will be actively involved in attracting foreign entrepreneurs to their community and working with local partners and existing networks to provide support for entrepreneurs settling into their communities.
Secondly, participating communities will refer foreign entrepreneurs whose business concept align with the community’s economic priorities to the program. The foreign entrepreneur must have visited the community and present their concept to the community’s designated contact person prior to receiving a referral.
Thirdly, regional communities can contact the BC PNP to access a dedicated concierge service that supports communities with their immigration needs.
Finally, foreign entrepreneurs referred by a participating community are placed in a separate registration pool dedicated to the pilot, and registrations and applications in the pilot program are prioritized.
The pilot program will run for two years.
