The Trudeau government will not cede more powers in immigration to Quebec, as Prime Minister François Legault had demanded this week, pleading that it would thus be possible to be “more demanding on the recognition of French”.
Posted at 2:19 p.m.
“We are always ready to meet the needs and to have more immigration, including more French-speaking immigrants in Quebec and Canada. And that’s why we work with the provinces, with Quebec,” replied Justin Trudeau to questions from The Press Friday, during a press conference held in Montreal to announce the arrival of a Moderna vaccine production plant.
Last Wednesday, during the study of the budgetary appropriations of the Executive Council, François Legault had suggested that the preservation of French should ultimately go through a repatriation of “all powers in immigration” to Quebec. In its “Nationalist Plan”, which is intended to be the reference document of the party as to its constitutional position, the CAQ makes it a major demand.
“What is important is to recover all the powers”, had hammered the Prime Minister, by “including family reunification”, and this in order “to be more demanding on the recognition of French”. “This is where there is work to be done,” he continued, in response to questions from PQ Pascal Bérubé.
If he recognizes that the labor shortage, the economic recovery and “all the challenges we face” on the sidelines of the pandemic require “to do more for immigration”, Mr. Trudeau does not does not mean to cede more powers to Quebec.
“We will continue to be good partners in this. It is a skill on which we will continue to work together and in partnership”, he limited himself to saying, thus closing the door to any form of transfer of additional responsibilities.
A request often made
Mr. Legault’s request to repatriate the family reunification program and obtain more powers in immigration is not new in itself.
A few months ago, during the last Canadian election campaign this fall, the CAQ leader had clearly asked — in a letter sent to all federal leaders — to obtain more powers in immigration, again demanding full control over of family reunification. He then spoke of a “question of survival for the Quebec nation”.
This multiplication of outings proves the importance of this issue in the eyes of Quebec. Justin Trudeau’s dismissal will therefore have a significant impact on the Legault government’s immigration game plan.
In Canada, immigration remains a field of jurisdiction that is officially shared between Quebec and Ottawa. At the provincial level, the Legault government can set its own immigration thresholds, but it is the Trudeau government that has the big end of the stick, in particular by setting the demographic limit at the national level.
It is also in Ottawa that comes the management of the family reunification program that François Legault would like to repatriate. In total, this program represents nearly one newcomer in four for 2022 in Quebec, half of whom do not speak French.
With Tommy Chouinard, The Press