(Ottawa) The federal government “does not buy into the conclusions of the Initiative of the Century” and does not set a target of increasing the population of Canada to 100 million inhabitants by 2100. Although belated, the development was well received by the Legault government, where we remain however on our guard.
Under pressure, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser made this clarification Thursday. “Let me be very clear: the plan for the Initiative of the Century is not our government’s policy,” he said in response to a question from Bloc MP Alain Therrien.
His office had previously sent a statement confirming the position, which seemed to want to pull the rug out from under the Bloc Québécois: the party tabled a motion dealing specifically with this issue, which has caused a lot of ink to flow in both Ottawa and Quebec the last days.
The minister’s press secretary, Bahoz Dara Aziz, argued that the Trudeau government “did not adhere to the conclusions of the Initiative of the Century and did not aim to increase the population of Canada to 100 million people. by 2100”.
The Initiative of the Century aims to increase Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100.
It is driven by experts “who share the belief that prosperity takes planning and that with the right approach to growth, Canada can increase its economic strength and resilience at home and its influence abroad,” reads -on on the think tank’s website.
However, it should not be up to “a few intellectuals in a tower in Toronto” to deploy a strategy that aims to “break Quebecers once and for all”, protested the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet.
Unless, he mocked, they seek to rekindle the sovereignist flame.
The Bloc motion proposes that “the House reject the objectives of the Century Initiative [NDLR en anglais dans le libellé] and asks the Trudeau government “not to draw inspiration from it to develop its future immigration thresholds”.
A “utopia” instead of “common sense”
The non-binding motion is due to be voted on next Monday. The Liberals will oppose it, since they “reject the premise of the motion, including the preamble which states that [leurs] objectives are linked to the Initiative”, it was noted in the liberal camp.
The New Democrats will vote no too. “Unfortunately, the Bloc and the CAQ seem to like it to make a diversion and break sugar on the backs of immigrants. On the NPD side, we think that the contribution of immigration is a source of wealth,” explained MP Alexandre Boulerice.
The motion is thus doomed to failure.
However, the Conservatives intend to support it, said leader Pierre Poilievre during the debate in the House.
“The Prime Minister and his corporate friends in multinational corporations, like Dominic Barton, have grand utopias they want to create for us instead of building our country on the common sense that has worked for over 100 years,” he explained.
“It was time” to face the facts
On the other hill, where the Initiative of the Century raises serious concerns, since it would likely have a negative impact on the democratic weight of Quebec within Canada, as well as on the sustainability of the French language.
Prime Minister François Legault expressed his concerns Wednesday at the National Assembly. On Thursday, through his press secretary Ewan Sauves, he breathed a sigh of relief, albeit cautiously.
“It was time for the federal government to face the facts. The target proposed by the Initiative of the Century was totally incompatible with the urgency of protecting and reversing the decline of French in Quebec,” he wrote in an email.
That said, “the target [fédérale] of 500,000 immigrants per year remains, and this is not more adequate in our opinion”, he added, recalling that Quebec “decides itself on the number of permanent immigrants”, and that it ” there was never any question for our government to have such a growth in immigration”.
The Initiative of the Century is not a new proposal, but it returned to the forefront after the Quebecor media devoted their Saturday front page and several pages to it. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mockingly referred to it during question period in the House on Wednesday.
“We presented our immigration thresholds in November. It took the cover of Pierre Karl Péladeau and Quebecor for the Bloc to wake up, ”he quipped in response to a question from Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet.
“It is rarely safe to attack the rigor, independence or integrity of a media apparatus. It is rarely very democratic, especially when the leader of the said apparatus is Pierre Karl Péladeau,” later replied the leader of the Bloc Québécois.
With The Canadian Press