Executive summary

The Ontario Immigrant Investor Corporation (OIIC, or the Agency) business plan summarizes the 2022–2023 fiscal year activities and outlines the fund’s main activities anticipated for 2023–2026.

The OIIC was established in April 1999 to act as the Government of Ontario’s vehicle for receiving and investing Ontario’s share of immigrant investor funds, as required by the federal government under the federal Immigrant Investor Program (IIP).

Ontario has always taken a prudent approach to invest these funds given that the province is obligated to pay back the immigrant investors’ monies upon the maturity of their investment in five years.

Following the termination of the IIP in 2014, the focus of the OIIC shifted to managing existing investments and meeting repayment requirements. When all obligations are met, the agency will be dissolved.

In 2022–2023, the OIIC continued to manage investments under the Statement of Investment Policies and Procedures (SIPP) to ensure compliance with the federal Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). The final repayment of immigrant investor monies held by the OIIC was transferred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on June 27, 2022 ($161,096).

Mandate

Pursuant to the Development Corporations Act, the OIIC was mandated to act as the Government of Ontario’s vehicle to receive and invest Ontario’s share of immigrant investor funds, as required by the federal government for all participating provinces and territories under the federal IIP. The broad goal of the OIIC was to create or sustain employment in Ontario in order to foster the development of a strong and viable economy, consistent with the requirements of the regulations under IRPA.

As detailed in section 4.0 below, Ontario no longer receives immigrant investor funds as part of the IIP. As such, the OIIC’s principal current responsibility was to invest Ontario’s share of funds from immigrant investors and pay back immigrant investors upon the maturity of their investment in five years.

The Treasury Board Secretariat provided seven government priorities for Ontario’s agencies to address. Beginning in the 2022–2023 fiscal year, where applicable, the OIIC will focus on several of these priorities including, Expenditure Management, Transparency and Accountability and Risk Management to:

  • operate within the agency’s financial allocations
  • comply with applicable accounting practices
  • abide by applicable government directives and policies and ensuring transparency and accountability in reporting
  • adhere to the accounting standards and practices, and respond to audit findings, where applicable
  • identify appropriate skills, knowledge and experience needed to effectively support the board’s role in agency governance and accountability
  • develop and implement an effective process for the identification, assessment and mitigation of agency risks, including COVID‑19 impacts and any future emergency risks.

Governance and organizational structure

The OIIC was incorporated as an operating agency of the Ontario government on April 30, 1999. On June 22, 1999, the OIIC was accepted by the federal government as an approved fund, as defined by IRPA, for the purpose of receiving and investing monies from the IIP.

Business support, strategic management services and other administrative support, including accommodation, financial, legal and human resource services is provided by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (or MLITSD) without charge.

The OIIC governance and organizational structure is depicted in the chart below:

  • Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD)
  • OIIC Board of Directors (minimum 3)
  • President
  • General Manager
    • Accountant
    • Chief Financial Officer
    • Secretary

The Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is responsible for providing overall government direction to the OIIC through the Chair of the Board of Directors, including:

  • approving the annual business plan, performance targets and budget
  • receiving the annual report and audited financial statements
  • recommending Board appointments

Allocations

The 2014 federal budget announced the termination of the IIP with a commitment to process applications that were received prior to February 11, 2014. Ontario continued to participate in the program during this wind-down period and has received its share of the remaining funds.

In July 2017, Ontario received approval to suspend the receipt of monies from the federal government. As a result, Ontario no longer accepts allocations related to the program. Accordingly, the OIIC has continued to serve as caretaker of those IIP funds held by Ontario. The last repayment was made on June 27, 2022 and the agency is now initiating wind down activities (including the deposit of its remaining financial assets to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, agency bank accounts closure, the revocation of O. Reg. 279/99 under the Development Corporations Act, Board of Directors OIC revocations and final OIIC Financial Audit).

Strategies and activities

The OIIC was required to remain operational until all immigrant investor funds were fully repaid. On June 27, 2022, the OIIC returned all IIP funds to IRCC. This concludes its obligations with the federal government. The agency has initiated its plans to wind down operations and dissolve by end of fiscal year 2022–2023.

The OIIC’s investments have been managed responsibly and scheduled repayments have been issued. Despite COVID‑19, operations of the OIIC have continued with ongoing preparations to dissolve with no financial impacts.

Performance measures and targets

The OIIC’s performance measures are to meet two main objectives over the next year:

  • To ensure that funds are secure and earn a positive return on investments.
  • To transfer agency revenues to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

As of September 30, 2022, the OIIC had revenues of $0.4 million against expenses of $0.002 million. The investment principle is now Nil since the last repayment was made to the federal government.

Resources and staff

Following the restructuring of Ontario’s ministries in February 2020, the OIIC was transferred to the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development (MLTSD) from the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (MEDJCT). Post the provincial election in June 2022, the ministry’s name changed to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development which had no bearing on the operations of the OIIC or its Board members.

Under the MLITSD, the staff of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, Immigration Policy and Strategic Initiatives Branch will continue to provide program and secretariat support to the OIIC and continue to work with the MLITSD Agency Relations Unit until the Agency’s dissolution. It will also continue to meet the Agencies and Appointments Directive (AAD) requirements.

The Legal Services Branch and the Controllership Unit within the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade continue to provide legal, financial tracking and reporting support to the Agency for continuity.

Financial projections

In 2017, Ontario triggered a suspension of funds under IRPA, section 5(1). As a result, Ontario no longer receives provincial allocations.

The focus of the OIIC has shifted to managing existing investments and meeting repayment requirements. The Ontario Financing Authority (OFA) will manage funds to ensure that all repayment obligations can be met and has monitored the repayment process in conjunction with OIIC’s Accountant. The last payment was made in Summer 2022 and the OIIC is anticipated to wind down in 2022–2023.

Investment policy

Funds were managed by the OFA to ensure that the outstanding obligations to immigrant investors were met in their entirety and that OIIC funds accumulated interest in order to be able to meet the repayment schedule to IRCC.

The final investment management fee of $57 was paid on August 9, 2022, to the OFA and final repayment of the immigrant investors’ monies were paid to IRCC on June 27, 2022.

All residual interest earned on IIP funds currently held by the OIIC minus agency liabilities, are to be deposited to Ontario’s CRF upon the OIIC’s dissolution.

  • It is anticipated that the OIIC will hold approximately $39.3 million in funds generated from the investment of immigrant investor monies received by the agency.
  • The Ministry and the OIIC will work with the Office of the Provincial Controller Division (OPCD) and the OFA to facilitate the transfer of funds to the CRF.

Risk analysis

No risks have been identified.

Communications plan

No public communication is anticipated given the wind-down of the federal IIP and subsequently the OIIC. A reactive approach is recommended to communicating the dissolution of this agency, as it is not a core government service, does not provide any services or programs, and does not have any stakeholders, clients, or beneficiaries. Once finalized, relevant web content will be updated as needed to reflect this change.

Reactive key messages will be prepared to provide the rationale for this change.

Relevant web content will be updated as required post-dissolution, including adding archive labels to the governance documents on the Ontario.ca Agency Accountability page, as well as a call-out box including a brief message regarding the dissolution of the agency.