Williams Lake is one of 30 B.C. communities participating in a two-year pilot project aimed at rural entrepreneur immigration.
“It’s an incentive to attract businesses to rural communities, instead of everyone clustering in Vancouver,” said Beth Veenkamp, Williams Lake’s economic development officer.
“They are doing that by lowering the financial threshold for entrepreneurs and they are hoping that it is going to attract young entrepreneurs. Quesnel is also participating. 100 Mile House is not. “
Knowing the program would be announced in 2019, Veenkamp said the City has already hosted investors for exploratory visits since October.
There is no funding attached to hosting the pilot program, but participating communities get a community profile on the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) website.
“So far we’ve had inquiries from the U.K., Pakistan, Dubai, China and Vietnam,” Veenkamp said. “I think it’s important to note that one of our first inquiries came from the U.K.”
The role of the community is to send a referral letter validating that a entrepreneur from another country visited, spent some time and investigated opportunities, she added.
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“An intent of the program is to get new community members, not a whole bunch of foreign-held businesses,” Veenkamp said. “Williams Lake will provide referral letters to go with the applicants’ applications to the PNP. At the end of the day, after they come and visit us, after they pitch their business, we will have an opportunity to review their business plan and make sure it is a match for the community and what we are looking for.”
Each community will then send referrals to the province, which will give the entrepeneurs some extra points.
“They still have to be able to qualify for the PNP. We don’t have anything to do with that or providing visas.”
Communities had to identify three classifications of occupation priority sectors.
“One of those would be food and drinking places, one is education services and the other one is administrative support. Those are the areas we are looking for businesses. So far, the food and drinking places have been popular with people inquiring, but we are a ways away from entertaining anything concrete.”
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