The government of François Legault, which announced in November 2023 its intentions to require a minimum knowledge of French among temporary workers, has still not tabled the regulation that would allow it to do so.
The office of the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Christine Fréchette, confirmed on Tuesday to Duty not having yet filed the regulatory amendments necessary to impose new French language requirements for the approximately 60,000 immigrants in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) currently in Quebec. A draft regulation will be filed “this fall,” it was assured.
On its website on Friday, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) had nevertheless congratulated itself on having taken “many important actions […] to better regulate temporary immigration” since coming to power. Among these: having “required knowledge of French to renew temporary work permits.”
It has been nearly ten months since Prime Minister François Legault made official, at a press conference in Quebec, his intentions to make the renewal of a work permit conditional on proficiency in the French language.
At the time, Minister Fréchette had stated that TFWP workers — with the exception of those working in the fields — would soon have to demonstrate level four language proficiency, meaning they would be able to “discuss familiar topics with those around them.” Justin Trudeau’s government has since followed Quebec’s lead by promising to apply the same requirements to immigrants registered under the federal International Mobility Program (IMP).
After several questions from the DutyOn Tuesday, the Immigration Minister’s office finally indicated that it would proceed with the “pre-publication of the regulation this fall,” with the aim of having it come into force during 2025. No explanation was provided for the delays observed for nearly a year.
“Improvisation”
In an interview, the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) immigration critic, André A. Morin, accused the government of having “improvised” on the issue. “It’s always the same problem with the CAQ: big announcements, and then, after that, nothing happens,” he lamented on the other end of the line. “For me, this is another example of the CAQ’s lack of planning and lack of control, whether in the areas of immigration, francization or integration.”
Although exasperated, Mr. Morin says he is not surprised to learn that the CAQ measure has still not been implemented. He even allows himself a hypothesis to explain it: “In terms of francization, the government is currently unable to meet the demand,” he observed on Tuesday. “There are people I know who want to take courses, but who are not called.”
In his annual report filed in May, the Commissioner of the French Language, Benoît Dubreuil, noted significant delays in the service offered by Francisation Québec. At the time, half of the applicants were still waiting to take their first course.
Questioned Tuesday, Québec solidaire MNA Guillaume Cliche-Rivard also mocked the government’s delays in this matter. “The CAQ’s boots are not following its words when it comes to protecting the French language,” he said in a written statement.
“For months, the failures of Francisation Québec have been making headlines and immigrant workers are lining up to learn French. Protecting French does not only involve requirements, but also positive results in francization,” he said.
“The CAQ boasts of being the party that has done the most for francophone immigration. It already only imposed a level 4 on workers in the PTET program, and we learned that the regulation that was supposed to implement this has not yet been tabled,” denounced the Parti Québécois spokesperson for the French language, Pascal Bérubé.
His party, he recalled, must submit this fall “a plan to reduce temporary immigrants in order to reduce the pressure on French, in particular.”