Many investors are like university students. When someone wants to go to university, they apply to three or four universities, such as York, McGill and Simon Fraser. You need to understand where these people are coming from. Our immigrant investors are not from Europe or the Americas; they are from Asia and the Middle East. Why? Because there are political or economic problems in their country. They do not meet the criteria to apply under another class either.
Why would these people invest $400,000, when they could immigrate to Canada as a skilled worker? Because they do not meet the required criteria, they cannot get enough points because they are too old, do not speak the language or do not have the education. The program was created in 1985—it has existed since then—to attract these individuals. You would be surprised to see how many people are extremely well off.
There are two programs in the United States. Earlier, I mentioned a program requiring $500,000; there is a $1 million requirement under another. You would be surprised at the number of people investing $1 million.
There is a program in the U.K. with a 750 000 £ requirement, and the whole process is completed in three months.
Anyone can travel by plane between Montreal and Vancouver. You can go business class, economy class or first class, but the fare is not the same. These are the choices these people have.
There are other countries. We are lucky to have the best program in terms of costs, finances, structure, benefits for these people and their children, unlike other countries around the world. I did a comparative study with other similar countries: Australia, New Zealand and the United States. What is currently killing us? The wait times. Obviously, if it is too fast, we will get a flood of applications. No, we will not get 25,000 applications per year, because the pool of investors is limited.