(Quebec) Quebec says no to the Initiative of the Century, the plan of an influential pressure group that wants to increase the population of Canada to 100 million inhabitants by 2100.
Prime Minister François Legault said on Tuesday that he was opposed to this project, which seems to have the ear of the federal government. A motion was also passed unanimously to that effect.
The CAQ government thus took advantage of this issue to take a firm stance on immigration, the day the opposition accused it of a “big CAQ lie” and of cheating with the numbers and immigration thresholds.
“It is in Quebec that we decide the number of immigrants in Quebec, and to be very clear, it is not a question of following the approach [de l’Initiative du siècle] regarding the growth of immigration,” he said during question period.
He was responding to a question from PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who believes that Quebec must become independent if it wants to escape being erased from Canada.
“Either we choose to raise our immigration thresholds between 120,000 and 150,000 per year to try to maintain the proportion of Quebec [de l’immigration au Canada]meaning the decline of French and an acute housing crisis, […] or either we choose thresholds according to our reception capacity, which means a significant drop in the political weight of Quebec in Canada, possibly below the 15% mark,” said the PQ leader.
In a scrum, Mr. Legault hinted that he was worried about the Initiative of the Century because of the threat it posed to the French fact and to the demographic weight of Quebec in the federation.
In addition, it would pose “enormous challenges” in the rest of the country in terms of housing and also in terms of health and education services.
A motion by the PQ was adopted unanimously in the National Assembly to say no to the Initiative of the Century, to ask the Government of Quebec to express its opposition and to demand a real democratic debate on the issue.
Mr Legault said his government would soon make an announcement on annual immigration thresholds – the threshold for permanent immigration is currently set at 50,000 per year.
But it is different with temporary immigration, which the opposition parties denounce.
At 1er January, Quebec already welcomed 346,000 non-permanent residents, according to Statistics Canada data. The Liberal official opposition even spoke of the “big CAQ lie” on Tuesday concerning the Legault government’s commitments to immigration.
In the coming weeks, the government will also begin its consultations on the 2024-2027 multi-year immigration plan.
The Prime Minister has made it known that his government will require knowledge of French for the economic class.
The CAQ has already mentioned holding a summit on immigration and advocated a sectoral referendum to repatriate all powers over immigration, but that is no longer on the agenda.
A proposal submitted to the General Council of the CAQ which takes place next weekend calls for the repatriation of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program managed by Ottawa.
Mr. Legault said Tuesday that he wants “always to have all the powers in Ottawa”, but that “we must act gradually”.
QLP
Still on immigration, the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) will revise its target of 70,000 permanent immigrants per year that it had defended during the election campaign, but refuses to say whether it will be up or down.
Liberal interim leader Marc Tanguay hinted Tuesday in a scrum in parliament that this target no longer holds.
« Il est clair que les chiffres [sur le seuil d’immigration permanente] must be revised in light of the new reality, said Mr. Tanguay. Is it 70,000? Is it more? Is it less? »
It was first his colleague at his side, the deputy Monsef Derraji, who opened the door to have this discussion with the members of the party.
“Yes, with our members, we are going to have this discussion,” he suggested, assuring that during the election campaign, his party did not know that temporary immigration represented such a high pool, “not as much”.
Therefore, the debate on the annual threshold of permanent immigration is “no longer relevant”, in his eyes.
It is “a big CAQ lie” to fixate on a permanent immigration threshold of 50,000 – as the Legault government advocates – without taking into account temporary immigration which is exploding well beyond the capacity of welcome from Quebec,” argued Mr. Derraji.