Immigration thresholds at 35,000 | Adding immigration won’t fill labor shortage, says PQ

(Lévis) The Parti Québécois does not buy the argument that raising immigration thresholds fills the labor shortage. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon affirms that “this premise is false and unfounded” and wants to melt the thresholds from 50,000 to 35,000.

Fanny Levesque
The Press

“The assertion that we constantly hear in the media that raising the thresholds makes it possible to fill the labor shortage is factually false and erroneous,” declared the leader of the Parti québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. , during a short stop in Lévis on Monday. The PQ, which had not yet announced its commitment to immigration thresholds, revealed that it would reduce them considerably.

Political training would reduce the number of permanent immigrants welcomed annually in Quebec from 50,000 to 35,000, which excludes temporary workers who come under Ottawa. Québec solidaire and the Liberal Party of Québec have promised to increase them. QS is aiming for thresholds between 60,000 and 80,000 and the Liberals are promising a minimum of 70,000 for the first year.

Despite numerous calls from the business community, the Coalition avenir Québec promises to maintain the current thresholds at 50,000. Only the Conservative Party of Quebec wants to lower them, but has not yet specified its target. To curb the labor crisis, the Conseil du patronat du Québec is urging the Legault government to raise the annual reception threshold to 90,000 immigrants.

Decisions taken on an “unfounded” premise, hammered Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. “Adding people does not change, does not solve the labor shortage because these people are both workers and consumers and their consumption requires the equivalent of work as their provision individual work,” he explained.

He also said that we must take into account the reception capacity of Quebec while the province is hit by a housing crisis and affected by a shortage of doctors and teachers. The PQ specifies that its commitments do not affect the reception of temporary workers.

The training, on the other hand, believes that it has “the best program” to help companies in regions that are struggling to find workers. A PQ government would put in place a series of incentives, such as the reimbursement of tuition fees, to increase the regionalization of immigration.

“About 80% of immigration converges on Montreal and we have set the objective of having at least 50% of immigration that is regionalized,” he added.