The immigration model prioritized by the government of François Legault, like its targets of 50,000 newcomers per year, could lead in the long term to a “rise of the extremes”, estimates the leader of the Parti québécois (PQ), Paul St. -Pierre Plamondon.
This is what the elected Camille-Laurin suggested on Wednesday, at the start of the PQ pre-sessional caucus, in Quebec. “We are the only ones looking for a sustainable model, so that precisely, we avoid what we see elsewhere in the world: the rise of extremes”, he indicated when asked about his positions vis-à-vis saw immigration.
During the election campaign, the PQ had proposed lowering the annual immigration thresholds to 35,000 people, 15,000 less than the current target, set by the government of the Coalition avenir Québec, and still much less than the proposed targets. by the Liberal Party and Québec solidaire. According to “PSPP”, this is a “more secure” and “more guarantor of our social peace” immigration system than that of the Legault government, which risks “exacerbating dissatisfaction”.
“I lived in Denmark, I lived in Sweden. I look at Hungary, France, England. If we make the mistake of not finding sustainable models, it has consequences for certain parts of the electorate, who will decide to take things another way, ”he analyzed.
“If we count temporary immigration, the situation [au chemin] Roxham, which is on the rise, and the current thresholds, we see the decline of French, the inability to house everyone and to offer services, ”he added.
In the middle of the election period, last September, Prime Minister Legault said that welcoming more than 50,000 immigrants would be “suicidal” for the protection of French in Quebec. This week, Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette also said in an interview with TVA Nouvelles that she intended to take advantage of the upcoming visit of US President Joe Biden to Canada to ask for the closure of the irregular border crossing on Roxham Road.
The consultations that will lead to a review of the thresholds over a four-year period are to take place this year.