The leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Dominique Anglade, proposed Tuesday to welcome 70,000 immigrants per year in Quebec to better fight against the shortage of manpower.
“This year alone, Quebec, in total, will welcome this. This is François Legault’s policy, 70,000 people, ”she said. “If we are able to have a reception capacity of 70,000 [immigrants], I think we base ourselves on that and we go around with all of our regions. »
In October 2021, the Legault government announced its intention to welcome approximately 70,000 newcomers in 2022. In fact, it intended to welcome between 49,500 and 52,500 people in the year, in addition to catching up on the backlog accumulated in 2020. , in the first pandemic year.
In Ms. Anglade’s opinion, the number of 70,000 immigrants should therefore be a “base”, a starting point for “having a conversation with all of our regions” about the number of immigrants they are able to accommodate.
Ms. Anglade’s predecessor, former Liberal prime minister Philippe Couillard, announced in 2016 his intention to welcome 60,000 immigrants a year to Quebec. His government then backed down. The Minister of Immigration at the time, Kathleen Weil, had instead proposed slightly and gradually raising the immigration thresholds over a two-year period.
Last week, the main employer associations asked the government to set the immigration threshold at 80,000 per year. The Minister of Immigration and Employment, Jean Boulet, immediately closed the door to this possibility. “There is no question of changing or increasing the thresholds that have been established in the multi-year plan. We have gone from 40,000 to 52,000 and we still have integration problems,” he answered a question from Québec solidaire MP Andrés Fontecilla, citing as an example the unemployment rate of 13% among immigrants, which is above average.