The subject is delicate. The continued arrival of asylum seekers, particularly in Quebec and Ontario, nevertheless deserves a primarily factual debate.
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It also calls for better consultation between the governments of Justin Trudeau, François Legault and Doug Ford. Which, for the moment, is missing. The real problem is there.
Tuesday morning, François Legault took out his cannons to point them in the direction of Ottawa. Four ministers, including Christine Fréchette at Immigration and Bernard Drainville at Education, sounded the alarm at a press conference.
Untying the purse strings
Their request: that the federal government add a billion dollars to help cover additional costs incurred for schools, housing, social assistance, etc.
Their hope: that with pressure from Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, Justin Trudeau will untie the purse strings while encouraging a more equitable distribution of asylum seekers in other provinces.
For François Legault, the political risk is however higher than for his Ontario counterpart. If he succeeds, he will take the credit. If he fails, he will have confirmed, once again, the inability of his autonomy to move the federal government.
In which case, the Parti Québécois, in first place in the polls, will have no problem repeating it and opposing its independence project. Especially since at the same time, François Legault refuses to hold a sectoral referendum on obtaining full powers in immigration because he knows too well that even with a majority Yes, Ottawa would not budge.
More choice
In short, he rolls the dice. In free fall within his electorate and struggling with a future budget that is “largely in deficit”, he no longer really has a choice.
Too bad for him, however, that this week he called into question the relevance of the Bloc Québécois in the House of Commons. For any Quebec government, the Bloc remains its first ally in the federal parliament. Not his servant, but his partner…