Executive summary

The Ontario Immigrant Investor Corporation (OIIC) business plan summarizes the 2019 to 2020 fiscal year activities and results and outlines the fund’s main activities anticipated for 2020 to 2023.

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 investing these funds given that the province is obligated to pay back the immigrant investors upon the maturity of their investment in five years. Following the termination of the IIP in 2014, the focus of the OIIC has shifted to managing existing investments and meeting repayment requirements.

In 2019 to 2020, 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). As of September 30, 2019, the OIIC repaid approximately $70M  to the immigrant investors for the 2019 to 2020 fiscal year.

As of March 2017, the federal government had not finished processing the remaining IIP applications, and Ontario triggered a suspension under IRPA regulations. This suspension became effective on July 29, 2017, and as such, Ontario no longer accepts allocations from IRCC, allowing the OIIC to wind down in 2022-2023.

Mandate

Pursuant to the Development Corporations Act, the OIIC is mandated 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 for all participating provinces and territories under the federal IIP. As detailed inAllocation, Ontario no longer receives immigrant investor funds. As such, the OIIC’s principal current responsibility is to invest Ontario’s share of funds from immigrant investors and to pay back immigrant investors upon the maturity of their investment in five years.

The broad goal of the OIIC is 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.

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 Corporation was accepted by the federal government as an approved fund, as defined by IRPA, for 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, Training and Skills Development (MLTSD) without charge.

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

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

The Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development is responsible for providing overall government direction to the Corporation 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. The repayment of the allocations processed in the 2017 to 2018 fiscal year is expected to occur by March 2023. Accordingly, the Corporation will remain operational until then to meet its repayment obligations under the IIP.

Strategies and activities

The goal of the OIIC is to create or sustain employment in Ontario to foster the development of a strong and viable economy, as mandated by the regulations under IRPA.

Ontario has been strategic in its approach to investing the funds by utilizing allocations received and interest earned to invest in economic development and job creation. As of September 30, 2019, the OIIC has $54M under its management; 35% is in zero-coupon bonds and 65% is in 90-day treasury bills (T-bills). As of October 31, 2019, Ontario’s remaining repayment amount is approximately $19M.

To ensure IO utilized the loaned funds for infrastructure projects and job creation, the OIIC and Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation (OILC), now Infrastructure Ontario (IO), signed a Credit Facility/ Loan Agreement outlining expectations. Once the agreement with Infrastructure Ontario (IO) expired in December 2015, OIIC began investing in zero-coupon bonds. As of February 2016, IO has started repaying loans in accordance with the repayment obligations as issued within the promissory notes. The final amount was repaid as of July 2019. In 2019 to 2020 IO repaid $47M ($42M principal and $5M interest).

Performance measures and targets

The Corporation’s performance measures include:

  1. To ensure that funds are secure and earn a positive return on investments
  2. To stimulate economic development and job creation through public infra-structure investments

Under the investment strategy, a significant portion of the IIP principal was directed to infrastructure investments under Infrastructure Ontario’s Loan Program to support economic development and job creation. As of March 2017, there have been approximately 106 IO projects funded by this loan program and approximately 18,000 jobs created.

As a result of the termination of the IIP, there was a significant reduction in the provincial allocations and OILC (now IO) stopped borrowing funds from the Corporation in August 2014. The main objective over the next 3 years is to ensure that funds are secure and earn a positive return on investments, until the wind down of the Corporation in 2022-23.

In 2018-19, OIIC earned net revenue of $3.6M. As the investment principal is reduced each year, the corresponding revenue is expected to steadily decline toward the OIIC wind down in 2022 to 2023.

Resources and staff

Following the restructuring of Ontario’s ministries in June 2018, the OIIC was officially transferred to the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (MEDJCT) from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.

Under the transfer to MLTSD, Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Business Services Branch staff continues to provide program and secretariat support to the Corporation, ensuring the Agency continues to meet Agency and Appointments Directive (AAD) requirements. The controllership unit within the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade continues to provide financial tracking and reporting support to the agency for continuity.

Financial projections

During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, Ontario triggered a suspension of funds under IRPA. As a result, Ontario no longer receives provincial allocations and the OIIC will wind down in 2022 to 2023.

The focus of the Corporation has now 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 will monitor the repayment process in conjunction with OIIC’s Accountant.

Investment policy

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

Forecasted statement of operations* – March 31 ($M)

  2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023
Revenue Not available Not available Not available
Interest income 0.7649 0.6974 0.6984
Total revenue 0.7649 0.6974 0.6984
Expenses Not available Not available Not available
Amortization of deferred commission 0.0286 0.0023 0.0000
Investment management fee 0.0159 0.0034 0.0002
Banking fees 0.0017 0.0017 0.0017
Total expenses 0.0462 0.0074 0.0020
Excess of revenues over expenses 0.7187 0.6900 0.6964

* Forecasted figures are taken from the 2020-21 Multi-Year Planning (MYP) Consolidation Reports.