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Updated: April 1, 2007

SPONSORSHIP DEFAULT RECOVERY PROGRAM

Background

• Canadian citizens and permanent residents who sponsor family members to come and live permanently in Canada sign an undertaking with the federal government in which they promise to provide health, financial and other basic supports to their relatives for a period of three to ten years, to help them settle in Canada.
• The promise specifically states that a sponsored relative will not require provincial income assistance.   Sponsors, in signing their undertaking, acknowledge that any income assistance paid to their sponsored relative is a debt owed to the province.
• The agreement is a precondition for sponsoring family members into Canada.
• A federal-provincial agreement allows the B.C. government to recover income assistance payments from sponsors who have defaulted on sponsorship agreements they signed in support of their immigrant family members.
• B.C.'s Sponsorship Default Recovery Program began in 1999.
• If a sponsored relative receives income assistance during the term of the agreement, the sponsor is in default, and the provincial government is legally entitled to pursue the debt.   This debt belongs to the sponsor, not the income assistance client.
• The majority of sponsors in B.C. fulfil their sponsorship responsibilities and obligations. It is estimated fewer than 12 per cent of immigrants who have come to British Columbia under family class sponsorships over the past five years have received income assistance while a sponsorship agreement was in effect.
• Sponsors are notified during the income assistance application process that their sponsored family member has applied for assistance.   Sponsors are also reminded that any income assistance paid to their relative becomes a debt the sponsor owes to the provincial government.
• Where there is substantiated proof of abuse towards sponsor or sponsored relative, the government suspends collection until circumstances change.   However, the debt and interest on the debt continue to accumulate.

Sponsorship Default Recovery

• The collection of all debts owing to the government is guided by the Taxpayer Fairness and Service Code. Collection is based on the individual's ability to pay, which is determined by reviewing the individual's income and expenses as well as assets and liabilities.
• The provincial government, through Revenue Services of British Columbia (RSBC), actively collects on sponsorship default debt.
• Active collection of sponsorship default debt was suspended in mid-2004 in order to verify sponsorship debt calculations and upgrade government computer systems.
• In November 2006, RSBC resumed sending notification letters to sponsors in default.   The letters inform sponsors of their debts and notify them that RSBC will be providing collection services on behalf of the government.
• Sponsors are encouraged to contact RSBC to discuss their debt and payment options available.