(Lebel-sur-Quévillon) Immigrants are “saviors of jobs And welcoming more does not represent a danger for the French in Lebel-sur-Quévillon, maintains Mayor Guy Lafrenière.
Posted at 5:45 p.m.
François Legault met him Friday during his visit to this municipality in the riding of Ungava, where his candidate Denis Lamothe is trying to get re-elected.
The CAQ leader welcomed the relaunch of the pulp and paper mill, Nordic Kraft, a file on which Mr. Lamothe and the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, worked.
Mayor Lafrenière told reporters that the plant has 290 workers and is still looking to fill more than 40 positions. “The labor shortage affects us enormously,” he said.
According to him, the solution lies in an increase in the number of immigrants. “I want more,” he said, pointing out that his municipality already has inhabitants of 26 different nationalities.
In the past year, Lebel-sur-Quévillon has welcomed approximately 50 immigrants. He would need “another at least 50” according to the mayor. “For Lebel-sur-Quévillon, 50 immigrants is probably like 50,000 in Montreal,” he said.
The municipality has the necessary integration capacity to welcome more newcomers. They quickly learn French and integrate wonderfully into the community. This is “absolutely not” a danger for the French. “It really doesn’t worry me. With us, it’s French. There is immigration, and it will remain French. »
He insisted: the immigrants “are citizens of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, they are Quebecers, they are like everyone else, and we live very well together. »
Mentalities have changed. When about twenty Tunisians arrived in 2011, “people said: they are thieves of jobs ! But “asteure, they are saviors of jobs ! If there were no immigration, our sawmill here in Comtois would be closed. Our pulp and paper mill, I’m not sure it would be open. »