Premier François Legault wants to dissuade companies looking for cheap labor from establishing themselves in Quebec.
“We, what we want is more jobs at 25, 30 or 40 dollars an hour”, he insisted during his visit to the factory of the manufacturer of electric charging stations. Add Énergie, in Shawinigan on Friday. He had presented there a few minutes earlier the “new post-pandemic economic vision” of COVID-19 of his government team. “If there are companies that want to come [pour] 15 piastres an hour, we will have to tell them: “Unfortunately, we do not have that workforce”, ”he added in front of an audience of elected officials, employers. and workers from Mauricie.
Mr. Legault has once again swept away the idea of pulling up the immigration thresholds, which business people rely on to fill thousands of vacant positions in Quebec. “At 50,000 [immigrants] per year, we have achieved our integration capacity, ”he said, while adding that“ half ”of the immigrants received in Quebec before the arrival of the Coalition d’avenir Québec (CAQ) at the helm of the State three years ago “do not speak French”. “If we want to continue speaking French in the next generations, there is a limit to the number of immigrants we can return. Let’s say it as it is: first, we have to take care of Quebecers, ”he continued, mentioning that the salary is 9% lower in Quebec than in Ontario.
Inevitably, tens and tens of thousands of positions will not find takers. “We must stop thinking that we are going to fill all the positions. […] We have reached nearly 200,000 [emplois non comblés]. It may go up to 300,000. Then it’s like that in all places, all over the world. The goal is not to fill all the jobs. The objective is first of all to fill essential jobs – nurses, teachers… all those who provide essential services – and where we also want to help, it is to ensure that Quebecers have access to jobs. paying “, explained Mr. Legault, pointing to the” fields of the future “of the green economy, information technologies and engineering where the State will offer” incentives “.
The Caquista government is counting on the interplay of labor supply (very low) and labor demand (very high) to increase the average salary of Quebecers. “It’s the workers who have the big end of the stick. And it is a good thing for the workers ”, argued the Prime Minister.
Mr. Legault said he was convinced he could accelerate the growth of the Quebec economy while stepping up the fight against climate change. “We have to do both,” he argued, refusing to embrace economic decline.
Local purchase
Mr. Legault said he had “a weakness” for one of the five “sites” identified in his “ambitious economic vision” topped by the title “a Quebec which wins”, that is to say that of “the production and purchase of Quebec” .
The President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, will soon present a bill so that “departments and companies buy much more in Quebec”, he indicated in particular.
After the Charbonneau commission, the Quebec government scrupulously applied the lowest bidder rule in order to remain free from any suspicion of “favoritism”. “Let’s stop being naive, I think we can do it [— acheter québécois —], especially with Sonia LeBel, without there being any crooked business, ”said Mr. Legault.
The five economic projects of the Legault government
Further details will follow.