The federal Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, suspected that the latest sums announced this week to the provinces to help them finance the temporary housing of asylum seekers on their territory did not respond in any way to those requested by Quebec. Not only is the envelope reserved below what was hoped for, it does not even correspond to the social services targeted by the Quebec request, which has been ignored by Ottawa for over a year now.
The minister’s air of generosity rather quickly revealed all the condescension he reserves for Quebec’s requests.
It only took him a few minutes to repeat his favorite affront against François Legault’s government, to the effect that migrants seeking asylum in Canada are “not cattle.” This desired distribution of asylum seekers across Canada, which nevertheless represented an acceptable practice in the eyes of Ottawa when it also responded to the concerns of Ontario municipalities, is now unjustifiable on the part of Quebec.
As for the financial support requested to pay for part of the public services offered to migrants in Quebec, Mr. Miller refuses to see it as the mathematical effect of the demographic jump resulting from federal border and immigration policies. The minister passes the buck to his colleague Chrystia Freeland, in Finance. And he argues that this social safety net already benefits from federal transfers in health and social programs, as well as from the Canada-Quebec Immigration Agreement.
However, these have not been improved in proportion to the surge in migratory arrivals in recent years.
Quebec will thus be entitled to $100 million for the year 2023 under the Temporary Housing Assistance Program (PALP), created five years ago and successively extended by the federal Ministry of Immigration. A global announcement of 362 million dollars which came at the right time, above all, to respond to the City of Toronto, whose mayor Olivia Chow threatened, in her budget this week, to carry the odiousness of a further tax increase more important to the arrival of migrants poorly managed by the federal government. The Queen City alone will therefore receive 143 million.
The Legault government, however, is demanding $470 million from Ottawa, in addition to the PALP. A sum equivalent to last resort aid (232 million), education and francization services (170 million), as well as social and health services (67 million) offered to asylum seekers arriving in Quebec in 2021 and 2022. Two years during which, respectively, 40% and 64% of asylum applications processed by the Government of Canada were processed on Quebec soil. A figure which still reached 46% of requests last year, for a total of around 65,600, or more than six times the number recorded in 2021.
Although Minister Miller claims that he recognizes that Quebec “has done more than its fair share”, he persists in ignoring the fact that this welcome generates costs that the Quebec government cannot assume alone.
The ball is now in the court of Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Freeland. Although Quebec still hopes that it will loosen the purse strings, it is a safe bet that a possible federal reimbursement – if it materializes – will be much less than the actual needs.
Ottawa is finally working on structuring fixes to its immigration system: by accelerating the much too slow granting of work permits and by preparing the return of a travel requirement for Mexican nationals, for whom the lifting of visas by the government of Justin Trudeau (against the advice of federal officials) resulted in an explosion of asylum requests, ever more numerous in Quebec.
The planet’s migratory flows will not suddenly bypass Canada, which has the responsibility to welcome those who flee a hostile land in search of a safe and peaceful asylum. However, the Canadian government also has the responsibility of supporting them with dignity on this journey. And not to dodge one’s share of financial responsibility accompanying this welcome.