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The fast-growing program — which has seen a tripling of allocated spots from 6,000 in 2018 to 21,500 in 2024 — was the focus of a critical report by the Auditor General last year that revealed “weaknesses” in its ability to prevent and detect misrepresentation. 

Under the program, a foreign national needs a certificate of nomination from Ontario before applying for permanent residence through the federal Immigration Department. There are nine OINP streams, including three that require a job offer by an employer in the province. 

Those fined include a lawyer, 21 immigration consultants and 55 employers, according to a freedom-of-information request made to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.

The violations include failing to provide information that is accurate, correct and not misleading, or failing to make “reasonable efforts” to ensure that in applications, the ministry said on its website.

Between 2018 and 2024, program staff issued 6,506 notices of intent to refuse an applicant’s nomination application, said the ministry. Out of those, 2,703 ended up being rejected after further inquiries. Notices of intent are issued when an individual’s qualifications and information are in question.

The Star pursued the freedom-of-information request in February after the ministry refused to release the enforcement data. The information was released in August.

Although Ottawa has the jurisdiction over immigration levels, selection and processing, each province is allotted an annual quota to nominate desired candidates. Ontario receives by far the largest number of nominees out of all provinces and territories in the program each year.

In , the Office of Auditor General identified multiple gaps in the management and enforcement of the OINP that have made the program vulnerable to potential abuse and misrepresentation. 

It said the common examples of misrepresentation include: falsifying past work experience; making up job offers; submitting fake language test scores; applications prepared by legal counsel without knowledge of employers; and having applicants employed in an ineligible position that is different from what’s stated in their application.    

OINP staff told auditors that the program had discovered possible fraudulent job offers, but did not verify the authenticity of the required document in the application from the federal government that confirms the position was needed and legit.

Among the case files reviewed before February 2024, the report noted that 27 per cent included detailed documentation for all applicable criteria such as the applicant’s proof of legal status in Canada as part of the verification process.

“The process leaves it up to the staff to perform the appropriate due diligence and conclude on the results of their searches,” it found. “Staff are not required to save documentation of the work they did.”

Problems were also identified in the program inspection process, which mostly took the form of “desk audits” before inspectors began on-site visits in late 2021. Desk audits involved online searches and reviews of application information in the case management system. 

The OINP also mainly relied on reactive inspections based on flags from program staff and tips from the public. In 2023, three per cent of all 17,970 applications were inspected; 72 per cent of the inspected applications had already been approved.

Inspectors can recommend financial penalties or orders to ban applicants, legal counsel and employers from the OINP program. However, the Auditor General report said as of April 2024, the program had only acted on 13 per cent of the 328 monetary penalties and issued less than two per cent of the 117 ban orders recommended.

In its response to the Star’s FOI request, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development said that only 20 per cent of the fines and 30 per cent of the ban orders “remain to be actioned.”

The Auditor General report also highlighted a case involving 38 applications where an unauthorized representative was behind an elaborate scheme that used 12 shell and real companies to manufacture falsified job offers and fabricate work experience in OINP applications.

At the time of the program audit, the report said the province had not yet charged anyone under the Ontario Immigration Act or Provincial Offences Act for breaking OINP rules and regulations. The ministry said in its FOI response that the first charge was laid in December 2023, but did not provide any additional information about the case.

“Work is currently underway on an enforcement and compliance policy,” the ministry said.