The success of French in Quebec requires a repatriation of “all powers” in immigration, Prime Minister François Legault said on Wednesday.
If he has always said he is in favor of assuming more powers in this area, the elected CAQ went further, Wednesday evening, during the study of the budgetary appropriations of the Executive Council. Asked by PQ MP Pascal Bérubé about the protection of the French language, Mr. Legault indicated that he had a different strategy than the third opposition group.
“A newcomer is obliged to send his children all of primary, all of secondary school in French. Then, the Parti Québécois said: if there were two or three more years in CEGEP, that would change the reality of French in Quebec. We, it’s not what we think, “said the Prime Minister. He was referring to the intentions of the PQ to apply “Bill 101” to college studies.
“We think it’s immigration that makes the difference,” continued Mr. Legault on Wednesday evening. And what is important is to recover all the powers […] – including family reunification – and then to be more demanding on the recognition of French. This is where there is work to be done. »
Shared jurisdiction
In Canada, immigration is a shared jurisdiction. Ottawa establishes how many newcomers can cross the country’s borders each year. It also manages family reunification and temporary foreign worker programs. Quebec assumes jurisdiction over economic immigration.
Prime Minister Legault has already expressed his interest in repatriating the “family reunification” portion of immigration powers. This category represents approximately one-third of the number of immigrants expected in Quebec’s thresholds for 2022. In mid-April, the Minister of Immigration also stated in an interview with the Quebec newspaper that he wanted to revise the Canada-Quebec Accord, which sets out the powers entrusted to each level of government.
Quebec has had a run-in with Ottawa in recent months. Last year, The duty noted that Justin Trudeau’s government was refusing an increasing number of French-speaking African students. At the same time, Minister Boulet wants to attract more French-speaking students than ever, in order to “ensure the vitality of French”.
The repatriation of immigration skills has been a long-standing debate in Quebec, but the file has reappeared in the news in recent months. Last August, the Bloc Québécois said it was expressly in favor of this measure. The Parti Québécois, through a letter co-signed by Pascal Bérubé and addressed to Mr. Boulet, repeated the exercise last month.
“Recently, a worrying inequity has been publicly revealed to foreign French-speaking candidates wishing to attend a Quebec higher education institution,” the letter reads. Canada refuses these students in a much larger proportion than their English-speaking counterparts. This harmful discrimination proves once again that it is urgent for Quebec to repatriate all powers in immigration. »
Law 101 at CEGEP
In consideration of budgetary appropriations, on Wednesday, Mr. Bérubé also urged the government of the Coalition avenir Québec to impose the Charter of the French language up to college studies.
“41.6% of Dawson College students are allophones. So we agree to finance the socialization in English of students who have gone through our primary and secondary schools. It is a choice we can make. We find that it does not make sense, ”he said.
The elected official did not want to say on Wednesday whether his party would vote in favor of Bill 96 reforming the Charter of the French language. He had failed in February in his attempt to modify it to extend “Law 101” to CEGEP.
According to François Legault, the solution lies rather in freezing the places offered in English-speaking CEGEPs. This is the proposal that appears in the bill and which, in all likelihood, will be adopted by the end of May.