The leader of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), François Legault, praised small countries like Switzerland and the Scandinavian states on Monday to justify his decision not to raise immigration thresholds.
Mr. Legault gave these examples, while his opponents took diametrically opposed positions, following an announcement by the Parti Québécois (PQ) in favor of reducing the number of newcomers to 35,000 per year.
During a press briefing in Outaouais, the CAQ leader explained why he wants to maintain this threshold at 50,000 people, despite calls to raise it to respond to the labor shortage.
He was not worried about the prospect that the demographic weight of Quebec would decrease within the Canadian federation, failing to increase the number of immigrants.
“Switzerland is a small, extraordinarily rich, extraordinarily dynamic country,” he said. Take the Scandinavian countries: small, extremely rich, extremely dynamic countries. Being big can be nice, but what is important is to have a quality of life for people who live in Quebec. »
Pragmatism
Mr. Legault repeated that at the current number, Quebec already receives, all things considered, more immigrants than the United States or France.
“We are 8.6 million inhabitants, I think it’s a size that still allows us to offer quality services,” he said.
The CAQ leader once again welcomed the fact that with the labor shortage, the workers have “the big end of the stick” to demand better conditions and better wages.
Mr. Legault praised the pragmatism of his position on immigration, which he also justifies by the importance of better promoting the integration of immigrants, for the protection of French.
He criticized the PLQ, which wants to raise the threshold to 70,000 and the PQ, which wants to lower it.
“There is a party for which it is not important, the defense of French, and a party for which it is not important, economic growth, he said. We are balanced between the two. We are not at 70,000, we are not at 35,000, we are at 50,000.
Reduction
On Monday, the PQ proposed reducing the immigration threshold to 35,000 people per year to take into account Quebec’s reception capacity and protect Quebec’s language and culture.
In Lévis, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said that, contrary to the rhetoric conveyed by some of his opponents, immigration does not solve the labor shortage. According to the PQ leader, immigration even has the potential to increase it.
Newcomers need services, which puts pressure on the host society, says Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
“A person’s work of 40 hours a week, when you compare it to their consumption and the work that it takes, it’s pretty much the same,” he said. When we look at macroeconomic analyses, it is wrong to say that high immigration thresholds will make up for the labor shortage. »
This reality is all the more restrictive with shortages of teachers and personnel in the health network, underlined the PQ leader.
“We are in a housing crisis, we have shortages of teachers and doctors, so our reception capacity is less, it has changed. »
The PQ will also target the regionalization of 50% of newcomers, with a “fast track” for those who agree to settle in the regions and financial incentives for them to settle there.
Power to the regions
Liberal leader Dominique Anglade, who has made the labor shortage her hobbyhorse, said Monday that the regionalization of immigration is the best way to Frenchify new Quebecers more quickly.
“In the regions, there are fewer issues in terms of integration compared to the French language,” she said. If they go to the regions, there is an acceleration that takes place. »
As announced in its election platform, the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) wants to give the regions the power to determine their immigration needs.
“We are leaving with 70,000 people, after that it will be determined by the regions. It may be more, it may be less. Each of the regions will be able to tell us the reception capacity. »
Status quo
Passing through Quebec, the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), Éric Duhaime, affirmed that the threshold of 50,000 immigrants per year is “acceptable”.
According to Mr. Duhaime, immigration is part of the solution to counter the labor shortage, but it is not enough. A newcomer who will need daycare for his children or new housing “will generate a need for workers”, argued the Conservative leader.
“For us, the real debate is more: will these people work and will these people speak French,” he said, on the sidelines of a press briefing.
Mr. Duhaime explained that it is necessary to choose newcomers by ensuring that they are in agreement with the “values of Quebec”.
Quebec solidaire, which wants to increase the threshold to 80,000 immigrants per year, insisted on Monday on the labor shortage and on the possibility of francizing newcomers in the workplace.
“Telling someone who has one or two jobs to take a French course on Wednesday evening will not work,” said Québec solidaire spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.