(Quebec) After promising in the campaign to welcome at most 50,000 immigrants a year during his mandate, François Legault opens the door to an increase in immigration thresholds if his government manages to increase the proportion of new French-speaking arrivals.
Updated yesterday at 5:11 p.m.
Prime Minister says his government “isn’t there at all” right now, but signals in the same breath that his new Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, is looking into the path of the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) to maintain a good proportion of French-speaking immigrants. The PEQ makes it possible to obtain a Québec selection certificate in order to settle there permanently.
“What we are saying is that we are limiting the number of immigrants to 50,000 per year. Why ? Because currently, there is a drop each year in the percentage of Quebecers who speak French. We have to find a way, in the 50,000, to have more of them who speak French. Once we have reached that objective, well, we can [demander] : is it possible to welcome more French-speaking immigrants? “said Mr. Legault on Wednesday.
“But here we have a real problem. For the moment, we want to solve the problem within 50,000,” added the Prime Minister on his arrival at the Council of Ministers.
During the election campaign, François Legault affirmed that he would maintain the immigration thresholds at 50,000 per year throughout his second mandate. The Prime Minister even declared that it would be “a bit suicidal” for French to welcome more immigrants to Quebec. It is therefore a change of discourse from the Legault government.
“In the 60% [d’immigrants] who is chosen by Quebec, both the governments of the Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois, we took 50% of them who speak French. We took 80%. On the other hand, it was in a special situation with the pandemic. We used the PEQ a lot. Can we repeat that? This is what Christine Fréchette is looking at, ”supported Mr. Legault.
Mme Fréchette was in the past CEO of the East Montreal Chamber of Commerce and Director of External and Institutional Relations at Montreal International, an organization that supports businesses in Greater Montreal in their recruitment of skilled foreign workers. The chambers of commerce are also calling for the thresholds to be raised to make up for the labor shortage.
Since the election, Justin Trudeau’s government has announced that it wants to welcome 500,000 immigrants by 2025.
By maintaining its thresholds, Quebec would see its demographic weight decrease, by the admission of François Legault himself. On Wednesday, he repeated the same arguments about the protection of French, without specifying the target he wishes to reach in order to possibly welcome more immigrants.
The multiannual immigration planning for the period 2020-2022 expires this year. The thresholds for 2023 should be tabled in the National Assembly by the end of the parliamentary session, which is due to begin on November 29. Consultations for the new three-year plan will take place next year for a filing of future thresholds somewhere in the fall of 2023.
Indexing
Its Finance Minister Eric Girard also raised another possibility: indexing the immigration ceiling. “Is your question whether the [plafond de] 50,000 should be indexed? Well, that’s a possibility. If it is indexed at 2%, it would be 51,000, 52,000, like that, ”he said on the sidelines of a press conference on one-off aid to fight against the rise in the cost of living.
Mr. Girard added that he is a “studious person” who has “opinions on many subjects”, and that he communicates these opinions “to the Council of Ministers”. “I encourage you to ask questions of the new immigration minister,” he added.
The Legault government is calling for more powers to better control the selection that falls under Ottawa. According to Justin Trudeau, Quebec has all the necessary powers in immigration and “Quebec has long had the ability to increase its immigration thresholds”.
Bone of contention in health
Immigration is not the only bone of contention between Quebec and Ottawa. The Trudeau government once again refused on Tuesday the request of the provinces to increase federal health transfers from 22 to 35%, in addition to launching a spade at the Legault government, which confirmed on Wednesday the sending of checks to help Quebecers to cope with inflation.
“I don’t know why Mr. Trudeau persists. We all know that health expenditure is the expenditure that is increasing the fastest because of the aging of the population, ”unchecked Mr. Legault. The provinces refuse that federal money be accompanied by conditions, health being exclusively within their jurisdiction. On this subject, Mr. Legault affirmed that “Mr. Trudeau thinks he is better than Christian Dubé to choose how to spend the money”.
With Charles Lecavalier and Hugo Pilon-Larose, The Press