François Legault does not want anything to do with welcoming more migrants to Quebec, even if the new Ottawa-Washington agreement affecting Roxham Road provides for the arrival in Canada of 15,000 additional asylum seekers.
“I think that Quebec, with 40,000 irregulars in the last year… I think that we have done our part,” said the Premier of Quebec on Tuesday, during a press scrum at the Parliament Building.
The announcement last Friday of a bilateral agreement between the US and Canadian federal governments provides for the reception of 15,000 more migrants from the “Western Hemisphere”. Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has given few details so far, but said Monday he hopes to open borders to these newcomers within the next 12 months.
Last year, the federal government recorded 39,171 irregular crossings on Roxham Road, between the US state of New York and Montérégie. In January and February of this year, this figure reached 9,392. The Legault government saw this as an unprecedented wave that threatened Quebec’s reception capacity.
A year before the announcement
Friday, after several years of status quo, the American president, Joe Biden, and the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, announced a major revision of their immigration agreement, which allows border agents to return to the neighboring country any applicant for asylum who has recently crossed the border irregularly, such as via Roxham Road. This agreement in principle was already ready. And has been for a year.
In the morning, the interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay, questioned the federal government’s decision to keep Quebec in the dark for 12 months. “Did it help the cause? I don’t think so, because we’ve seen tens of thousands [de migrants] arrive in a disorderly fashion. It created problems for everyone,” he said during a press briefing at the National Assembly.
According to the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the interval between the conclusion of the agreement and the moment when it was made public demonstrates “the absence of a balance of power for the federalist nationalism of the [Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ)] “. “The CAQ may try, as it did on Friday, to brag and appropriate the merits of this decision, the fact is that the CAQ was not in on it,” said lamented the elected Camille-Laurin.
“It’s a bit pathetic,” retorted the Minister responsible for Canadian Relations, Jean-François Roberge, on Tuesday. “I understand that, for the PQ, it’s a bit of a defeat in view of their referendum on sovereignty,” added Mr. Legault a few moments later. Last week, he hailed a “very good victory” for Quebec.
Legault justifies himself
At the end of the morning, the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Manon Massé, had also denounced the difficulties that the Government of Québec had, for 12 months, in obtaining answers to its questions about Roxham. “This is one of the fundamental reasons why our social project requires the independence of Quebec: it is to be able to be, at these times, an actor whose voice is essential”, she raised.
Asked about the deadlines, François Legault came to the defense of the federal government. “In practice, to be able to close Roxham and then return these people to the regular entry point, I think it was not automatic in the agreement that was there a year ago, “he said. said.
“When I met the United States Ambassador to Canada, I [ai] explained the urgency, he continued. Then he came out and said, “Well, that’s not really the point here.” I think there was a challenge to make it a priority in the negotiations with the United States, then it was done by Ottawa. »