The new deputy for Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, will be able to fight it out next week with Simon Jolin-Barrette and Christine Fréchette at the Blue Room. He inherited the immigration and justice files in the shadow cabinet of Québec solidaire.
Elected at the start of last week, Mr. Cliche-Rivard will be sworn in next Tuesday at the Parliament Building. The lawyer specializing in immigration will also deal with issues related to francization, integration and international relations.
The deputies Andrés Fontecilla, Christine Labrie and Haroun Bouazzi, themselves, are removed from their responsibilities.
The agenda of the twelfth united deputy promises to be busy. “These are indeed big files,” he agreed in an interview with The duty Monday.
In immigration, the year 2023 is synonymous with consultations on “multi-year planning”. This process, which must be held by the end of the summer according to the office of the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, will allow the government to fix the reception capacity of Quebec for the next four years.
Already, in December, Minister Fréchette had announced that Quebec would welcome approximately 50,000 people in 2023. According to Prime Minister François Legault, exceeding this figure could endanger the survival of French in Quebec territory.
“Behind the immigration thresholds, there are people. Then, immigration thresholds, what that creates, in fact, is waiting times before families, children, women are reunited, “said Mr. Cliche-Rivard. He also intends to “work on the return of the Quebec Experience Program as we knew it” before the immigration reform led by the CAQ government in its first term.
That’s not counting the Roxham Road hot file. The Coalition avenir Québec government is asking Ottawa to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement and “close” this entry at the Quebec-US border, which saw more than 39,000 irregular migrants pass through in 2022 .
” Diplomat “
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard hopes to demonstrate his “diplomacy” in the House in the coming months. “Obviously, sometimes when there are lives at stake, then dreams at stake, then humans at stake, it brings up the emotions a little, and then we can fight a little more,” he said. said.
In terms of justice, he will have the opportunity to discuss the shortage of judges and employees in courthouses. The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, is also studying a bill on the reform of family law.
Mr. Cliche-Rivard will not be sworn in to King Charles III next Tuesday, as the law now provides. He will therefore become the second MP in Quebec parliamentary history to retain his “monarchical virginity”, after the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.