Quebec invests tens of millions of dollars to receive temporary workers, including at least $8 million last year in direct recruitment abroad, according to a compilation from Duty.
Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette recently said she was “surprised by the magnitude of the new numbers” of non-permanent residents in the province. A few hours after the publication of new estimates from Statistics Canada at the end of September, she called on Ottawa to review its migratory targets by considering this explosion of people holding temporary visas: “It deserves reflection and awareness,” he said. she asserted.
“Increasing the number” of temporary foreign workers appears in black and white in Quebec’s immigration plan, and has been since 2020. It is also Quebec which asked Ottawa to relax several rules of access to these programs. This is an explicit strategy not only of the Ministry of Mme Fréchette, but also the ministries of Labor and Health as well as establishments in the health network.
In addition to being clearly formulated, this objective is financed by specific measures, including direct recruitment abroad. Search for new recruitment pools ($1.2 million), funding of organizations for the Quebec Days ($3.9 million), missions abroad (17 missions), creation of Recrutement Santé Québec ($2 million annually ), campaign to promote the province as a temporary work destination ($305,000), support program for regions in international recruitment ($500,000): nothing is spared, as shown by our non-exhaustive search in documents officials.
Businesses, including daycare services, can also be reimbursed for travel abroad, administrative procedures or moving costs for foreign workers.
Many expenses are then planned after arrival to support these people. The Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, for example, announced an investment of $65 million in 2022 for the recognition of the skills of foreign nurses. This amount is used to pay a living allowance during the additional training prescribed by the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ). There is also $20 million over five years to help the Immigration Department analyze “temporary immigration applications” more quickly.
Confusion or double talk?
Why then be surprised by the increase in temporary immigrants? Above all, it is the companies themselves who will look for them in other countries, in all areas. Programs for temporary workers are also established by the federal government and do not include maximum targets.
The province does not establish quotas in this area either. It still plays a bureaucratic role in the case of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. In the other major category, the International Mobility Program, Quebec is made aware of the number of permit holders, as shown by statistics presented during the study of appropriations last spring.
The new media coverage of the increase in non-permanent residents pushed Minister Fréchette to ask the federal government to “review its immigration policies in order to respect Quebec’s reception capacity” in a motion to the National Assembly on October 4 .
A “paradoxical” political discourse, according to Denis Hamel, of the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ). His organization of 70,000 employers welcomes the financing of certain recruitment measures, but he notes certain inconsistencies. On the one hand, because “it is the labor market which dictates the number”. On the other hand, because these temporary workers “are already here in employment with children at school and with accommodation”, and therefore to say that we do not have the “reception capacity” is “a false debate ” according to him.
“When Quebec decides to limit permanent workers, we see the effect on the number of temporary workers. They are communicating vessels,” recalls the vice-president for workforce development policies at the CPQ.
No more permanent “places”
The two types of immigration are in fact increasingly communicating vessels: across the country, since 2021, at least a third of permanent immigration actually comes from temporary immigration. Reducing the targets for permanent residents in Ottawa would therefore not have the effect of reducing the quantity of non-permanents, “on the contrary”, reacts Mr. Hamel.
The province encourages temporary workers to come with millions of dollars, but does not create more permanent “places”. Unable to leave the temporary immigration antechamber, people are stuck for years in bottlenecks in several categories, as reported The duty.
“The government itself, the main employer, understands that it will not be able to fill its positions simply with the people here,” he notes. He says he understands the fears for the sustainability of the French language: “Wrongly, we blame immigrants for the decline of French in Quebec. But what is the motivation to learn French for someone who thinks they will have to leave again after two years? »
Being “stuffed” with the label of temporary “is not funny for anyone, neither the employer nor the worker,” he continues. The possibility of becoming permanent is a very important motivation for francization, notes the CPQ.
During consultations on immigration thresholds, this organization also proposed counting foreign workers outside the calculation, just as Quebec will do for foreign graduates. This means that they would be added, in addition to the threshold, by 50,000 or 60,000 permanent residents, depending on the scenario chosen by the government, which must submit its planning no later than 1er next November.