(Quebec) Québec solidaire (QS) calls on the Legault government to invoke without further delay article 33 of the 1991 Canada-Quebec Accord on immigration in order to provoke a new round of negotiations with Ottawa to repair a system that “no longer suitable for Quebecers”.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, that The Press obtained, the former president of the Association of Immigration Lawyers and current solidarity MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard affirms that Quebec has “all the legitimacy necessary to claim all” of the powers in immigration.
“The agreement says that either party can invoke Article 33 with six months’ notice and that the current agreement continues to operate until a new agreement is signed. I don’t understand why Minister Fréchette has not yet written to [son homologue fédéral] Marc Miller to invoke the article. She has spent the last few months saying that there is a blockage with Ottawa, but she has not yet invoked the planned, legal mechanism that allows her to act. It’s beyond me,” he said.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Christine Fréchette, Minister of Immigration
In his letter, Mr. Cliche-Rivard identifies the minimum requirements that Quebec must obtain in immigration. First, he must convince Ottawa to be forced to obtain the province’s agreement “when it establishes its own immigration levels for the entire country.” The objective of this request is to ensure the demographic weight of Quebec in Canada as a whole.
“Without the consent of Quebec, Ottawa will not be able to raise its thresholds at the national level,” explains the supportive MP. In an interview, he did not answer whether such a request was realistic, nor why the federal government would agree to negotiate such a right of veto for Quebec in the control of federal immigration thresholds.
Everyone in Quebec agrees that the federal targets are not reasonable. If Quebec could play its formal and firm role, federal policy would be more reasonable.
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, QS immigration spokesperson
Secondly, the solidarity MP urges Minister Fréchette to repatriate to Quebec all the powers to select all of its immigration, including the family reunification component, the refuge component and the humanitarian component.
“Quebec must also be able to regularize and perpetuate the status of all people on its territory if the public interest justifies it. […] As for temporary immigration, Quebec must also be able to select all of its temporary foreign workers, which it does not currently do with the International Mobility Program,” he says, among other things.
What to do with asylum seekers
In the context where the Legault government is once again pressing Ottawa to fairly distribute asylum seekers who arrive in the country from coast to coast, Mr. Cliche-Rivard adds his voice to the requests made by Minister Christine Fréchette so that the province is reimbursed for the costs incurred in recent years.
As we do not have the levers on visas, as we do not control the borders, we must at the very least obtain a distribution mechanism [des demandeurs d’asile] across the country, as is done in the European Union. We must do the same thing within Canada, in a voluntary and caring manner.
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, QS immigration spokesperson
“In Canada, other provinces must do their fair share. […] Canada will finally have to recognize Quebec’s efforts, Quebec’s expenses, and ensure full reimbursement of hospitality costs generated in recent years and for future applicants,” added the MP.
In his letter to Minister Fréchette, Mr. Cliche-Rivard also asks her to obtain the power to “regularize and perpetuate the status of all people on its territory” and to “reaffirm its right to determine who can work on its territory and under what conditions, notwithstanding the issuance or not of a work permit by the federal government.”