Strongly demanded by Quebec, the closure of Roxham Road ultimately “did not achieve much,” admits Minister Jean-François Roberge.
• Read also: Quebec wants to be reimbursed $460 million by Ottawa for welcoming asylum seekers and Ukrainians
• Read also: Closing Roxham Road didn’t solve anything: record number of asylum requests at Montreal airport
To explain this failure, he points the finger at the federal government of Justin Trudeau, which modified its immigration policies the day after the closure last March of this main point of entry for asylum seekers into Canada.
“Ottawa went to review its way of distributing visas to distribute more and more of them with fewer checks, which means that ultimately, the closure of Roxham Road did not achieve much because now, it is happening at the airport with the blessing of the federal government,” lamented the Quebec Minister of Canadian Relations and the Canadian Francophonie on Thursday.
Jean-François Roberge estimates that Quebec receives much more than its share of Canadian asylum seekers, i.e. 48%.
“In the first ten months of 2023, Canada received 112,780 asylum seekers and Quebec received 53,973 of these people,” he insisted.
“It borders on hypocrisy”
But what angers the CAQ even more is the recent statement by the federal Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, who called into question the reimbursement of the costs associated with welcoming these migrants. Quebec is demanding the modest sum of $460 million. “I don’t have $400 million lying around here and there,” said Minister Miller.
“It borders on hypocrisy, it’s totally unacceptable,” replies Mr. Roberge. At the moment, the federal policy is ‘I decide, you pay. I pride myself on being the most generous country, I welcome all the misery in the world, you pay, pay the Quebecers!’ It makes no sense, it’s absolutely not a policy that is responsible!”