In his opening speech of the 43e legislature in the National Assembly, Prime Minister François Legault has acknowledged that the application of the provisions of Law 96 on the common language, adopted last May, will not be enough to stop the decline of French. “We can’t stop there,” he said.
Rightly, François Legault believes that “it is imperative to put an end to this decline and reverse the trend”. He sees it as his “first duty” as premier of the only state with a French-speaking majority in North America. This decline is indeed “existential”, as he asserted, in the sense that it determines the very existence of the Quebec nation.
The Prime Minister has mandated the holder of the new Ministry of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, to design a “dashboard” displaying indicators and projections updated every year on the state of the linguistic situation instead stick to the five-year data produced by Statistics Canada. The measures will thus be adjusted in order to “put Quebec back on the trajectory of a revival of French”. But that remains in the realm of intention.
Faced with repeated refusals from Justin Trudeau, François Legault has not completely given up on obtaining more powers in immigration from Ottawa. But, it seems obvious that his expectations are now reduced. Before the election campaign, the Prime Minister made a point of obtaining from Ottawa a transfer of powers in immigration to avoid the “Louisianization” of Quebec. Today, he is asking Jean-François Roberge, who is also the Minister responsible for Canadian Relations, to develop, with the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Christine Fréchette, “a basis of precise negotiation” to begin discussions with the federal government on language and immigration issues.
Before demanding more powers from the federal government in matters of immigration, it is still necessary to make full use of those that Quebec already possesses. We talk a lot about the threshold of 50,000 immigrants admitted annually, that is to say the number of newcomers, often already present in the territory, who obtain their permanent residence. But we forget temporary immigration, be it workers or students. For example, more than 60,000 foreign workers are present in Quebec under the International Mobility Program administered by the federal government. According to an assessment by the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, approximately half of these foreign workers work in English. There are also over 90,000 foreign students in our CEGEPs and universities, 45% of whom attend English-language institutions. It is time for the Quebec government to fully exercise its prerogatives under the Quebec-Ottawa Agreement on Immigration.
This is a start: the Legault government intends to get involved in the selection of temporary immigrants who are subsequently admitted permanently. He wants to attract more foreign students to Quebec so they can graduate from CEGEP or one of our French-language universities. To achieve this, he will have to convince the federal authorities to put an end to their discriminatory practices which prevent French-speaking African students admitted to our higher education establishments from entering Quebec.
In his speech, François Legault also addressed the issue of asylum seekers entering via Roxham Road. We expect 50,000 by the end of the year. Public services and community organizations are overwhelmed, while federal authorities take more than two years to process these irregular requests, let alone appeal procedures. Quebec is ready to do its part, said the Premier. But he must be justified in demanding that Ottawa put an end to a situation that cannot last forever. To see the Trudeau government award contracts to Liberal friends to build makeshift residences to accommodate asylum seekers, one must doubt its eagerness.
We can only note “the strong appeal of English”, as the Prime Minister reminded us, which complicates the integration of immigrants into French. In this sense, the Trudeau government should commit to stop doing harm. It would be the least.