After the CAQ and the PQ, it is the turn of the Liberals to affirm that immigration puts pressure on housing and public services, even if they still maintain that we must receive more newcomers to respond to the labor shortage.
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“It’s clear that it puts pressure on all services,” concedes Marc Tanguay in a telephone interview ahead of his party’s back-to-school caucus, which will take place in Thetford Mines from Tuesday to Thursday. “And that actually puts pressure on access to housing, because these people have to find housing.”
This is a change of tone for the PLQ, these observations being generally expressed by PQ or CAQ elected officials.
The interim leader of the PLQ even shares the demands expressed by François Legault in the letter he sent to Justin Trudeau last week.
“There must be a distribution within the Canadian federation, and the federal government has a role to play in that. There are also security issues, sometimes with immigration from Mexico. And of course, it is important that Quebec be compensated by Ottawa [pour l’accueil des] asylum seekers,” asks Mr. Tanguay.
“François Legault must win his case in this […], he continues. It’s important that he sent the letter. But somewhere also, he has an obligation to deliver results.
On this point, the Liberal leader is hardly optimistic, because he believes that the CAQ leader is navigating this issue by sight.
According to him, the absence of a “clear plan” or a “reception and integration policy” led the government to a “total loss of control”, particularly with regard to temporary foreign workers.
“François Legault said: we won’t have more than 50,000, and there are more than 500,000 coming in!” he is indignant.
Marc Tanguay does not believe, however, that we should reduce the number of immigrants admitted each year to Quebec. On the contrary, he even pleads for welcoming more newcomers. “We need help for our economy, but it must be done in an orderly manner,” he said.
But how to do it ? Faced with this question, the interim leader of the PLQ resumes his criticism of the Legault government rather than clarifying the positions of his party. He insists that the CAQ was slow to act because it did not recognize that there was a housing crisis and a labor shortage, and that it is for this reason that we find ourselves in the situation that we know today.
“It takes a vision, it takes a clear inventory […]“, he maintains, without giving further details. “We need workers who will come from abroad, temporary workers, workers obviously, who one day will be able to be citizens duly received in Quebec.”
SME Party
At their lowest in the polls, the Liberals hope to distinguish themselves from other parties in the National Assembly by defending SMEs in the coming weeks.
“All the other parties are broken!” says Marc Tanguay, enthusiastically. “The CAQ is breaking with science, the PQ is breaking politically with its proposed referendum on sovereignty, and Québec solidaire is breaking with the economy by being excessively suspicious of our wealth creators. So we are going to distinguish ourselves by not being a party of rupture.”