(Sherbrooke) As Quebec reaches the milestone of nine million inhabitants, Prime Minister François Legault plans to limit the arrival of temporary foreign workers, whose number has increased significantly in recent years.
What there is to know
- Quebec has crossed the threshold of nine million inhabitants, a growth which can be explained mainly by immigration.
- The number of temporary immigrants – workers, students and asylum seekers – is increasing sharply and exceeds 500,000.
- The Legault government plans to tighten the admission criteria for temporary foreign workers.
Tightening the admission criteria for the category of temporary foreign workers, the Minister of Immigration “Christine Fréchette is looking at that,” he responded during a press conference Thursday, at the end of the meeting of its caucus to prepare for the resumption of work in the National Assembly on January 30.
“We can’t rule that out. We are currently examining it,” he added.
The selection of temporary foreign workers is done under different programs and is a jurisdiction shared between Quebec and Ottawa. More than 500,000 temporary immigrants stay in Quebec, many of whom are temporary foreign workers. The others are students and asylum seekers.
A year ago, Statistics Canada counted 360,936 temporary immigrants in Quebec, who are also called non-permanent residents. This number now reaches 528,034, an increase of 46% in one year.
It is foreign workers who form the largest contingent of non-permanent residents in Quebec. There are 225,684 of them, if we include their family members. This represents 43% of total temporary immigrants. Their number jumped by 85,500 in one year, an increase of 61%.
QS accuses the CAQ of weakness
For Québec solidaire, François Legault’s exit is “ironic” since he already has all the powers to intervene on this issue. “The Canada-Quebec agreement of 1991 already provides that Quebec must authorize the entry of each temporary foreign worker,” recalled co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who believes that there is too much immigration temporary in Quebec and which now recognizes that Quebec’s reception capacity has been exceeded. During his party’s pre-sessional caucus, which was held Thursday in Laval, he accused François Legault of weakness on this issue in the face of the federal government.
Currently, Quebec controls access to immigrants who go through the temporary foreign worker program, which includes “around 45%” of the total in this category, explained MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard. “The other 65% comes from the international mobility program”, managed by Ottawa. “Quebec should be consulted full time. François Legault has power, and he must demand it,” lamented Mr. Cliche-Rivard.
But at the same time, Québec solidaire believes that a drastic reduction would cause other problems. “Who can we do without in Quebec in terms of temporary foreign workers? Does that mean we leave strawberries in the fields? Does this mean we are removing staff who work in RPA? Because these people are workers,” said Gabriel-Nadeau-Dubois.
Legault seeks compromise
When reminded that he had committed to demanding that Ottawa grant him increased immigration powers, particularly with regard to temporary foreign workers, François Legault responded that the discussions “are going well” with the Federal Minister Marc Miller. “I think there is an opening,” he said. “I am confident that we will succeed in finding compromises with the federal government. »
He subsequently stated that “we would like to have more powers in immigration”, but that “we already have some” and that “we use them”.
The Press reported Thursday that Quebec has just crossed the milestone of nine million inhabitants. According to François Legault, “there are pluses and there are minuses” to this significant population growth, caused mainly by immigration. But we must slow down the arrival of asylum seekers, he reiterated. “As we have said and I wrote to Justin Trudeau, having nearly 150,000 asylum seekers at the same time puts pressure on housing, health services, education, it also poses a challenge for the future of French. What we think is that we must reduce their number,” said the Prime Minister.
An about-face, says the PQ
For its part, the Parti Québécois recalls that it criticized the Legault government last June for not taking into account temporary immigration, which is “out of control”, in its immigration planning, focused on permanent immigrants. . He notes that Christine Fréchette had responded this to her boss Paul St-Pierre Plamondon: “There will be no threshold that will be set on temporary immigration, because that would mean a planned economy. » We are thus witnessing an about-face by the government with the Prime Minister’s comments, according to him. “We cannot trust the CAQ,” added MP Pascal Bérubé on social networks.
For the Liberal Party, Quebec “will have no choice for our economy” to welcome more immigrants. “We’re going to need more [d’immigrants]. For the moment, we have 500,000 temporary workers and we are not responding to their [besoins] essential. This must be resolved as quickly as possible and François Legault has done nothing to increase reception capacity,” argued his interim leader Marc Tanguay on Wednesday.
According to forecasts made by the Quebec government, “nearly 1.6 million jobs” will have to be filled in Quebec during the period 2022 to 2031 “by people who are not currently in the job market”.
“The 500,000 [immigrants temporaires] working. This morning, we need it. François Legault’s failure is that he did not work on reception capacity. It’s time for him to get his act together, to see the bigger picture, [à la fois] permanent and temporary, and that it brings the regions into the picture,” added Mr. Tanguay.
With Suzanne Colpron, Hugo Pilon-Larose and Charles Lecavalier, The Press