The reservations expressed by federal Minister Marc Miller in relation to Quebec’s immigration requests do not put off the elected CAQ leader responsible for the file, Christine Fréchette. She will meet with her counterpart next Wednesday in the national capital and intends to make gains within three months.
In a telephone interview with The dutyFriday, the Quebec Minister of Immigration did not give any sign of any discouragement in the face of the comments of her counterpart in Ottawa, who had shown himself unconvinced the day before by some of the government’s proposals. François Legault in immigration.
” We are going to work […] based on the discussions that took place between the prime ministers [il y a une semaine] and arrive in June with concrete elements of progress. I think it’s important that we deliver solutions,” said M.me Fréchette, Friday.
During an interview with The duty in the corridors of the Canadian parliament on Thursday, Mr. Miller nevertheless expressed doubts about certain proposals from François Legault’s government. The idea of imposing French language requirements on immigrants from the family reunification category is, for example, “a little bizarre,” he said, while recalling that the “relationship” between the two governments “is not is not a single meaning. “We also have expectations. »
The elected federal Liberal will be able to express his wishes next Wednesday, in Quebec, during a first meeting with his counterpart since the meeting between François Legault and Justin Trudeau in Montreal. Mme Fréchette will wait to speak to him before positioning himself on Ottawa’s “expectations”. “It’s not very clear to me what he means by that,” she said Friday.
“Open” or not?
Emerging from his meeting with Mr. Trudeau a week ago, Prime Minister Legault said he felt an “openness” on several issues, such as French language requirements for temporary workers or the payment of a billion dollars for reception of asylum seekers.
However, this latest request makes the federal Minister of Immigration doubtful. In his interview with The duty, Thursday, Mr. Miller demanded more transparency from Quebec on the issue. “It will take better ventilation than what was done [jusqu’à présent] “, he said.
For 2021 and 2022, Quebec expected approximately $470 million from the federal government in reimbursement for services provided to people who applied for asylum. For the year 2023 alone, 576.9 million would have been added to the total. François Legault’s government thus calculates the expenses incurred over the last three years in welcoming asylum seekers at more than a billion dollars.
“We are completely open to giving more details,” replied M.me Fréchette, Friday, while being surprised that the request is only coming now. “We asked the question again recently and it seemed to fit, what had been sent to them as information. So, it will be up to Minister Miller to tell us what additional details he would like to have,” she said.
For the years 2021 and 2022, the grant of nearly 470 million dollars paid by Quebec was as follows: 232 million for last resort aid, 170 million for education and francization services and 67 million for services social and health. M’s officeme Fréchette did not want to provide us with the breakdown for 2023, as he “is in negotiations”, but he had already revealed in a press release that around 370 million had been paid in last resort aid that year.
Ottawa must “make its way”
As for the language issue, Mme Fréchette invites Ottawa to follow its pace. The CAQ elected official has already planned to subject non-permanent residents from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to requirements in French, but wishes to apply this same policy to those who go through the International Mobility Program, which is controlled by the federal government.
“We were able to go a long way even though our powers were quite limited,” she said. “So, I imagine that the federal government can also do its part. »
According to the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, Minister Miller’s response to the Legault government’s requests leaves no room for doubt. “The perpetual humiliation of Quebec, which has no balance of power under this government, continues,” he wrote Friday on the social network “X”. “François Legault must quickly tell us what “options” he is considering in order to restore a minimum balance of power for Quebec. »
The perpetual humiliation of Quebec, which has no balance of power under this government, continues. So Justin Trudeau’s great “openness” to ceding some new powers to Quebec boils down to this?
“On the other hand, he is not about to hand over the power of… pic.twitter.com/fjjioO3D6f
— Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (@PaulPlamondon) March 22, 2024
The spokesperson for the Liberal Party of Quebec on immigration, André A. Morin, for his part, invites Ministers Fréchette and Miller to speak. “I am asking for a constructive discussion,” he said in a written statement sent to Le Devoir. “Immigration is a shared responsibility. It is clear that Minister Miller cannot act alone and unilaterally in this area. »
“For Québec solidaire, the solution is clear: we must be able to manage all of our immigration and repatriate all powers, in particular that of being able to reunite families. Moreover, we are still waiting for reimbursement of costs for asylum seekers, which the CAQ is failing to claim from the federal government,” added solidarity MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard on Friday.