There are too many temporary immigrants in Quebec, admits Québec solidaire, which however does not come forward with the means to reduce their number. “These questions are complex,” said the party’s co-spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, at the opening of his caucus on Thursday.
At the last count, nearly 530,000 temporary immigrants resided in Quebec. These are foreign students, temporary workers and even asylum seekers.
And in the current context, “temporary immigration is a bad model,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois in the press scrum, a few minutes before launching the pre-session solidarity caucus in Laval. “Yes, it’s too much. »
The elected official thus jumped head-on into the debate on immigration which has become the political backdrop in Quebec since the start of the year. “It’s a bad model for immigrants, because it’s synonymous with precariousness. It’s a bad model, too, for Quebec,” said the Gouin elected official, flanked by his co-spokesperson, Émilise Lessard-Therrien, and the party’s immigration critic, Guillaume Cliche. Rivard.
Last week, the Parti Québécois suggested that it could revise its migration thresholds to avoid putting too much pressure on Quebec’s reception capacity. Then, the Coalition Avenir Québec government ordered the federal government to put a brake on the arrival of asylum seekers to avoid a “breaking point”. The Quebec Liberal Party instead established this week that Quebec would have “no choice” to open its doors to more immigrants in the coming years.
“Who can we do without? »
While he agrees that it is impossible for Quebec to continue at the current pace, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois avoids saying for the moment where his party would cut — in temporary or permanent immigration — to better respect the capacity of the rental stock, of the education network and the health sector. “Quebec’s reception capacity must stop being a political toy. We must define it once and for all on objective bases,” he said, reiterating his desire to see the creation of a committee of experts on the issue.
“Who do we want?” Who can we do without in Quebec? Do we leave strawberries in the fields, do we remove staff who work in the [résidences pour aînés] ? All these beautiful people are temporary foreign workers,” he illustrated.
During the 2022 general election campaign, QS set its permanent immigration thresholds at between 60,000 and 80,000 new arrivals per year. Like the entire political class, the party had not established reception levels for temporary immigration.
Further details will follow.