(Ottawa) Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller criticized Prime Minister François Legault for making “unfair and unreasonable amalgams” when he continues to attribute “100%” of the immigration crisis to temporary immigrants. accommodation.
“I am not denying the volume, but an exaggeration. […] I think it’s enough to sugarcoat the backs of immigrants,” he said on Tuesday upon his arrival at the meeting of the Council of Ministers.
Mr. Miller said he believed that Prime Minister Legault “invents his figures, he invents causality,” then he dropped – jokingly, he insisted – that “100% of people who confuse correlation and causality ends up dying”, which was the proportion mentioned by Mr. Legault.
In an interview broadcast Monday by Radio-Canada, the Prime Minister affirmed that Quebec welcomes 270,000 more temporary immigrants than two years ago and that without them “there would no longer be a housing crisis.”
He said he would not rule out holding a referendum to repatriate immigration powers if Ottawa refuses to reduce the number of temporary immigrants by 50%, which he said is nothing less than an “emergency.” national”.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
François Legault
Minister Miller responds that while it is “clear” that the volume of immigrants has an impact on housing affordability and prices, they are far from the only factors.
“Interest rates are not only linked, far from it, to immigrants. We are not congratulating them for the drop in the interest rate,” he gave as an example.
Since the meeting between Prime Minister Legault and his federal counterpart Justin Trudeau last week, Ottawa has repeated that Quebec has largely control over temporary immigration.
Mr. Trudeau, for example, argued that Quebec controls the admission of “half” of arrivals on a non-permanent basis, and that the province must present its plan before Ottawa can set precise reduction targets.
Mr. Legault, at the end of the meeting, had not closed the door to reducing the number of immigrants in programs under provincial control, but had seemed to express certain reservations. According to him, these are not the categories of greatest concern and the ball is essentially in the federal court.
“We like having students, young people who are qualified and who stay in Quebec afterwards,” he particularly mentioned.
Ottawa then committed to paying 750 million to Quebec to compensate for the reception of asylum seekers on its territory.
The federal government also promised to process the files of asylum seekers more quickly and to encourage their “voluntary movement” to other Canadian provinces.