Tom Carter, a Canada Research Chair in Urban Change and Adaptation at the University of Winnipeg did a review of the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) for a recent issue of the Journal of International Migration and Integration. His conclusion was that the Manitoba PNP is one of the world’s best.

The number of immigrants to Manitoba has grown by 235 per cent since 1998, while the national level of immigration has remained relatively stable.

The Manitoba PNP was established in 1999 and has brought in two thirds of Manitoba’s immigrants since then. It is the most successful PNP in the nation, having attracted 60 per cent of all nominees over the 1999-2006 period.

The key to the Manitoba PNP’s success, according to Carter, is that it “is an economic program that selects applicants with the training, work experience, language ability and investment potential to be employed in Manitoba and make a positive contribution to the provincial economy. It is not a humanitarian program.”

The business component of the Manitoba PNP has generated more than 700 businesses in the province between 2002 and 2006. These businesses have contributed a proposed investment of nearly $262 million and have created close to 1,700 new jobs.