The act of granting someone permanent residence is a federal prerogative, sure. To get to that point, though, if you have a PNP nomination, requires the consent of the province. That isn't granted lightly and the province has certain expectations of you in return for granting you the privilege of moving there. In other words, yes, he or she is good to do whatever,
WHEN DONE. Our dude was not done.
To get slightly deeper into the weeds regarding the legality of it, you can check out the relevant section of the federal-provincial agreement (
here's BC as an example) and the federal immigration regulations
here. They're pretty simple once you get past the mile-long preambles, but essentially:
- The province is responsible for selecting people to admit to PNP programs;
- Canada, ie the federal government, is responsible for enforcing the applicable regulations. To quote:
There are, like, at least half a dozen provisions in the latter document which I could see an officer making use of to deny someone permission to become a permanent resident - here's one,
sect. 51:
So: The province and Canada have agreed that Canada enforces the regulations. The regulations state that if you're a provincial nominee you must intend to reside in the province nominating you. They also state that the dude accepting you as a permanent resident must check that you're still following that rule. Since our bird-brained subject here straight up told the guy at the border that he or she wasn't following the rules they have a duty to tell them to naff off, basically.
