It is easy to get lost in the breakdown between Ottawa and Quebec and one might wonder who is responsible for the explosion in temporary immigration. In fact, both governments contribute to it, but thanks to the Canada-Quebec Agreement relating to immigration and the temporary admission of aliens of 1991, Quebec can regulate it on its territory.
There are four legal sources of temporary immigration — asylum seekers and three permit programs, one for study permits and two for work permits, namely the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the international mobility (PMI). According to data on the number of holders of these three programs as of December 31, 2022, study permits represented 46.3% of the total, PTET 17.5% and PMI 36.3%.
When it comes to asylum seekers, Canada’s geopolitical situation makes it unique among developed countries. Since the application of the Safe Third Country Agreement across the entire Canada-US border, the only way to arrive in Canada to request asylum is by plane. Canada uses visas and temporary permits to try to limit the arrival of people seeking asylum.
Earlier this year, a federal government decision to rapidly reduce the considerable number of visitor visa applications appeared to have led to a significant increase in asylum seekers at airports, particularly in Toronto and Montreal. Quebec regulates, through permanent immigration thresholds, the number of those who will eventually be admitted to stay in Quebec, but not the number of those who arrive.
For the Foreign Student Program, the provinces, taking into account their jurisdiction in matters of education, can adopt policies aimed at reducing the number of young people from abroad who enroll in their systems. They are also responsible for designating educational establishments for the purposes of a study permit.
In Quebec, thanks to the Accord, the federal government cannot issue a study permit without the consent of the Quebec ministry responsible for immigration. To indicate its consent, Quebec issues a Quebec Certificate of Acceptance for Studies. It establishes the related conditions and can decide to limit the number that will be granted annually. To date, there has been no cap on the number of CAQ-studies issued.
It is obvious that it was the intention of the negotiators of the Agreement that Quebec regulate all admissions, permanent and temporary. This is seen in the very title of the Agreement and in the preamble, as well as in the title and substance of the Couture-Cullen Agreement (1978) on which the Agreement was based, as well as in the Agreement of Meech Lake.
Regarding workers, at the time of signing the Agreement, the TFWP was the only program targeting temporary foreign workers. This was a relatively minor program mainly involving seasonal agricultural workers. It truly and only served as a last resort for employers wishing to provide positions of limited duration and having demonstrated that every effort has been made to find local labor.
It is therefore not very surprising that the article of the Agreement on the consent of Quebec for the admission of foreign workers refers to those “whose admission is governed by the requirements of Canada regarding the availability of Canadian workers “. There was also no policy to offer permanent residency to temporary workers. To apply for permanent residence, it was necessary to do so from abroad, a stipulation which remains in the Agreement, but has not applied for more than twenty years.
With regard to this PTET, the source of the famous “closed permits”, Quebec determines which employers will be authorized to hire how many workers and under what conditions, and it issues a CAQ-work to the people hired in the program. Once again, it establishes the conditions of the CAQ-work and can limit their number. To date, the government has not placed an annual cap on the number of CAQ-travail.
In 2014, the Harper government split the TFWP in two to tighten rules regarding the hiring of foreign labor for labor market needs. It created another program, the International Mobility Program, for foreign people working temporarily in Canada for other reasons. Normally, the creation of this program should have been addressed by the Joint Committee, the bilateral body created by the Agreement to manage its application and resolve immigration disputes, but it is not known if this was the case . Suffice it to say that Quebec does not issue CAQ-work within the framework of the PMI.
The second largest program after study permits, the PMI has experienced rapid growth in the last ten years and has become the main path for the transition from temporary to permanent status.
If Quebec wanted to regulate all of its immigration, within the quasi-constitutional framework offered by the Agreement, it would be enough to instruct the Joint Committee to negotiate the necessary steps to ensure Quebec’s consent to PMI work permits. . That being said, even with such control, will the government be ready to use it to include temporary immigration in its multi-year immigration planning?