“Concerned” by the meteoric rise in the number of temporary immigrants to Quebec, François Legault is considering requiring them to have skills in French.
The most recent data from Statistics Canada indicate that La Belle Province welcomed 346,000 temporary immigrants to its territory as of 1er January, even though the CAQ has frozen the permanent immigration threshold at 50,000 again this year. Liberals and PQ accuse the Legault government of hiding the reality from the Quebec population on the real portrait of newcomers.
The Prime Minister had to admit on Tuesday that the explosion in the number of temporary immigrants worries him, particularly about the sustainability of the common language.
“Temporaries, there are a lot of them, and we have to ask ourselves questions about what we are doing to protect French, and not only on the permanent side, but on the temporary side too, he agreed. I am concerned and (we) are currently looking to act on both”.
As promised, his government will soon announce new French language requirements for economic immigrants seeking permanent residence.
Quebec will not allow thresholds to be imposed
François Legault, however, warns Justin Trudeau that Quebec will not allow itself to be imposed thresholds for newcomers by the Canadian government and by the Initiative of the Century, a plan which plans to increase the population of Canada to 100 million inhabitants by 2100. .
“I want to be very clear, there is no question in Quebec that there will be such a growth in immigration over the next few years, he insisted. It is Quebec that must decide on its own the number of immigrants we receive each year”.
However, the Prime Minister refuses to see this federal initiative as a threat to Quebec culture.
“As soon as the actions we take in Quebec come to stop the decline, the decline of French in Quebec, and we start to see the percentage of Francophones increase in Quebec, we also protect Quebec culture” .
The elected members of the National Assembly, all parties combined, nevertheless adopted two motions on Tuesday denouncing the federal immigration plan.
The Liberals will review their target
The increase in the number of temporary immigrants to Quebec convinced the Liberals to review their permanent immigration target. The reds promised thresholds of 70,000 permanent immigrants per year during the last election campaign. This number no longer holds.
The PLQ criticizes François Legault for concealing the truth about immigration to Quebec by evading the question of temporary immigrants, who must inevitably be part of the next consultation on the thresholds for newcomers.
“François Legault is trying to tell Quebecers that he controls the door to the house. But the garage door is open,” lamented Liberal MP Monsef Derraji.
What they said:
“Quebec sets its own immigration targets, and it has the exclusive power to select the majority of its immigrants. On our side, we firmly believe that we can grow the economy while protecting French culture and language” – Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
“There are a lot of temporary workers and we have to ask ourselves questions about what we are doing to protect French, and not only on the permanent side, but on the temporary side as well” – Quebec Premier François Legault
“Today I am officially asking for the big CAQ lie to be stopped because I no longer want us to talk about 50,000 (immigrants), I want us to talk about 300,000, because they come here, they ‘settle here, they use our services’ – Liberal MP Monsef Derraji
“These 300,000 people, there, they are already in Quebec. So when we talk about immigration, why don’t we start with those people? These people are already taking up housing, they are already in our public services. So, it’s not an additional burden for Quebec society, to use the words of some politicians on this, on the contrary” – Solidarity parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
“Under the CAQ, we will have increased temporary immigration seven times. So, there may be a reflection to be had on the reception capacity in terms of temporary immigration as well” – PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
Excerpts from the motions adopted Tuesday in the National Assembly
“That the National Assembly denounce the desire of the Initiative of the Century group to increase the population of Canada to 100 million by 2100, regardless of the reception capacity of Quebec and Canada, (. ..) that such an initiative would have deleterious effects such as a weakening of the linguistic dynamic in Canada by marginalizing French, a significant reduction in the weight of Quebec within Canada, increased pressure on housing and on services public, (…) that this initiative is not viable for the future of the Quebec nation”
“That the National Assembly oppose the increase in federal immigration levels and the “initiative of the century” aimed at increasing the Canadian population to 100 million inhabitants by 2100, (…) that it immediately demand that a real democratic debate be held on this major change in the federal government’s migration policy”.