(Quebec) Experts must define Quebec’s reception capacity before deciding to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in the territory to less than 470,000.
This is what Québec Solidaire (QS) is calling for, which raised the specter of “mass deportations” on Thursday if we set a threshold that would already be exceeded today.
QS’s exit follows its decision, the day before, to block a motion from the Legault government which asked the federal government to revise its immigration policies downward to respect Quebec’s reception capacity.
Through this motion, the CAQ wanted to protest against the increase of nearly 50% in temporary immigrants in Quebec, from 322,000 to 471,000, between July 2022 and July 2023, which puts a lot of pressure on public services and the market. rental.
QS, however, refused consent to debate the motion, claiming that its amendments to the wording had been refused.
In a press scrum on Thursday morning, MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard first demanded an “apolitical, non-partisan” committee of experts to define reception capacity.
“After that, we will make a decision. Are we increasing it? Are we investing? Are we giving more to social services for reception? »
He wants to hear from “demographic experts, economist experts, people who know the state of our social services by region”, while recognizing that reception capacity was something “political, because reception capacity , it’s something dynamic in which we invest or we don’t invest.”
Mr. Cliche-Rivard, who is a lawyer specializing in immigration, added that he was ready to bow and rally if the analyzes demonstrated that the reception capacity is “filled” and that “decisions must be made difficult” and that we “cut”, in his words.
“I’m going to follow science,” he summarized.
However, the QS spokesperson foreshadowed difficult decisions to come, and even dire consequences.
Remember that in her motion tabled on Wednesday, the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, asked Ottawa to carry out a more “frequent and efficient” count and that the data be transmitted automatically to Quebec.
“Who are we cutting?” We are going to start doing a deportation… we are going to start doing mass deportations. »
Remember that in her motion tabled on Wednesday, the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, asked Ottawa to carry out a more “frequent and efficient” count and that the data be transmitted automatically to Quebec.
She also invited the federal government to review its policies, to respect the “reception capacity of Quebec”, in particular because “this increase is incompatible with the need to ensure the protection of the French language in the unique context of Quebec in America North “.
In the amendments he proposed, QS notably wanted to delete the wording stating that this increase in temporary immigration was incompatible with the need to ensure the protection of the French language. According to QS, this “raises issues”, but it is not incompatible.
In addition, the left party wanted to emphasize that the current system “perpetuates the vulnerability of our non-permanent residents.”
The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) agreed with the motion, even if it wanted to request the repatriation of the temporary foreign worker program to Quebec. The PLQ had raised a “red flag” concerning Quebec’s reception capacity after the publication of the data.
The Parti Québécois (PQ) proposes to reduce the permanent immigration threshold to 35,000 per year.
The 470,976 temporary immigrants in Quebec estimated by Statistics Canada in July are divided as follows: there are 146,723 asylum seekers and 324,253 holders of study and/or work permits, with their family members.
In comparison, in July 2022, there were 93,428 asylum seekers and 228,917 study and/or work permit holders, with their family members.
QS deplores that while we discussed welcoming 50,000 to 60,000 permanent immigrants per year in the consultations at the National Assembly, the CAQ government refused to talk about categories of temporary immigrants.
QS recommends setting the admission threshold for permanent immigration in a range between 60,000 and 80,000 per year. The party is demanding that the status of immigrants with precarious status and without status be regularized to make them permanent immigrants, at a rate of 10,000 per year.
Let us recall that last spring, Mme Fréchette had presented two scenarios regarding permanent immigration: maintaining the thresholds at 50,000 immigrants per year, or gradually increasing them to 60,000 by 2027.
This was a major turnaround for François Legault’s team, which had declared during the election campaign that raising the thresholds beyond 50,000 would be “suicidal”.