Clouds have gathered over the meeting between Prime Ministers François Legault and Justin Trudeau scheduled for Friday in Montreal, literally and figuratively. The rare head-to-head was postponed due to precipitation which, seen from Montreal, was not exceptional.
Wednesday, François Legault, in a press briefing in Quebec, had indicated that two main subjects would be discussed during this meeting: French and health transfers. Regarding the French language, he wanted Justin Trudeau to send “a clear message” to federally chartered companies like Air Canada so that they comply, as required by Law 96 on the official and common language of Quebec. , to the Charter of the French language. However, the Liberal MP Marc Garneau expressed, on Tuesday, the Canadian orthodoxy in the matter. “It would be a big mistake for us […] to leave the field open to Quebec to do whatever it might want to do with regard to language in Quebec. »
An urgent subject for François Legault is immigration, and, first and foremost, Roxham Road, through which 36,000 asylum seekers have entered since the beginning of the year. He also recalled the increase in health transfers demanded by the 13 premiers of the provinces and territories, of which he underlined the unanimity. On these two subjects as well, the CAQ government is not in the process of winning its case.
In this regard, the Trudeau government, through its Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, continues to blow hot and cold. As in the past, Ottawa is seeking to undermine the illusory common front of the provinces by implying that discussions are underway with some of them.
The Trudeau government began by stating that it required the provinces, including Quebec, to transmit their data, which the Legault government did not oppose since this data is public. But in reality, what Ottawa wants is a federal health “plan”, moving forward on the path of supervisory federalism. Sending unconditional health transfers to the provinces, “this is not a health plan,” lamented Jean-Yves Duclos.
It is worth remembering that there is not a single health care system in Canada, as some claim, but health care systems in each of the provinces, which, although based on the same main principles set out in the Act Canadian Health Act, have their particularities.
For her part, the new Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Christine Fréchette, met for the first time on Monday with her federal counterpart, Sean Fraser, to demand that the Trudeau government resolve the problem of Roxham Road. She also asked that Ottawa pay the costs of support and social assistance services assumed by Quebec and pay allowances to asylum seekers waiting for a work permit so that they can take French courses. Wasted effort. Currently, 90% of these migrants who enter the country irregularly remain in Quebec, which is required to accept them under the Canada-Quebec agreement on immigration. Ottawa has the good game.
Justin Trudeau believes that Quebec can accommodate 112,000 immigrants, all French-speaking, without difficulty. However, the immigration threshold only reflects part of the reality. According to the data just released by the Quebec Institute of Statistics, there are currently 290,000 non-permanent residents in Quebec, temporary workers and foreign students whose admission, for the most part, is regulated by Ottawa, a management that the Legault government must take care of.
These are major disputes that deserve serious discussion. A simple snow shower shifted them. We will therefore have to wait for the sky to clear up, both literally and figuratively.