(Halifax) François Legault managed to obtain a common front from the provinces on Tuesday: they are all asking the federal government for a “fair distribution” of asylum seekers based on the capacity of each province and territory to provide housing and services.
And there is an “urgency to act” because a return of Donald Trump to the White House could even increase the influx of asylum seekers, fears the Premier of Quebec.
At the end of the first day of the annual Council of the Federation summit on Tuesday in Halifax, Mr. Legault was able to convince his counterparts that Quebec was receiving too many asylum seekers, in relation to its demographic weight and its capacity to provide housing and services.
At a press conference at the end of the day in a luxury hotel in the capital of Nova Scotia, he refused to say which provinces would agree to receive more.
“I don’t want to reveal the private discussions we had, but there is an openness in some provinces. It’s certain that many provinces are already concerned about the lack of housing, but it’s a question of fairness,” he said.
Alberta and British Columbia had responded earlier in the day that they already had their hands full.
The provinces are calling on Ottawa to “accelerate the screening of genuine asylum seekers entering Canada and to work with provincial and territorial governments to establish the appropriate number of asylum seekers who can be accepted,” while demanding “adequate” funding from the federal government.
It is an “acute” problem in Quebec, acknowledged Alberta Premier Danielle Smith at a mid-afternoon press conference.
PHOTO DARREN CALABRESE, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
She added that she felt sympathy for Quebec, but “we feel a similar type of pressure,” she said.
Alongside him, his colleague from British Columbia, David Eby, also argued that his province was doing more than its part in welcoming immigrants.
Mr. Legault believes that transfers of asylum seekers from Quebec to other provinces could take place in the coming months.
He recalled that the federal Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, had himself suggested that as early as August, there “should be results” in the federal efforts already undertaken to ease the pressure on Quebec.
“There is an urgent need for us to act,” said the head of the CAQ government.
He even mentioned risks if Republican candidate Donald Trump were re-elected to the presidency of the United States in November.
“A possible election could further increase the number of asylum seekers” in Canada, commented Mr. Legault.
In the second quarter of this year, according to Statistics Canada, Quebec welcomed a total of 597,000 non-permanent residents, already 47,000 more than the previous quarter. For comparison, in the second quarter of 2023, there were 421,000.
“We are not able to integrate these people, we lack housing, we lack staff, many are in Montreal and do not speak French,” lamented the Premier of Quebec.
Among the total number of non-permanent residents, there are 190,000 asylum seekers and 407,000 holders of work and study permits, and their family members.
A Quebec-Ottawa agreement
Under a Canada-Quebec agreement signed in 1991, Quebec controls the volume of entry of its future permanent residents, economic immigrants, as well as their integration and francization. Economic immigration represented 66% of permanent immigration in 2022.
The federal government deals with refugees, family reunification and citizenship issues.
Quebec can receive a percentage of the total number of immigrants arriving in Canada that is equivalent to the proportion of its population within the federation. At present, Quebec’s demographic weight is approximately 22.3% of the Canadian population.
Mr. Trudeau had already said that Quebec had the “full capacity” to welcome 112,000 immigrants per year, or just over 22% of the target of 500,000 permanent immigrants that his government wants to welcome per year by 2025.
In French
Mr. Legault has already expressed the wish that Quebec welcomes 100% French-speaking immigration by 2026.
Currently, the proportion is rather around 60%. The Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, has qualified the target to speak of Francophone or Francotropic immigration, therefore made up of people whose language would be compatible with the French language.
According to the government’s multi-year planning, Quebec could reach 96% of economic immigrants knowing French in 2026-2027. It was at 88% in 2022.