With the exception of 2020, a year marked by severe restrictions linked to the pandemic, the Trudeau government is flying from record to record in terms of immigration. This week, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser unveiled new targets that put Canada at the top of countries — and by far — in the number of immigrants they welcome.
During its first term, the Trudeau government increased the Harper government’s immigrant threshold of 280,000 to some 350,000. Last year, Ottawa wanted to catch up due to international travel constraints and administrative hiccups. which contributed to reducing the number of immigrants admitted in 2020 to 186,606 instead of the planned 341,000; it therefore increased this number to 400,000 in 2021.
This target of 400,000 or more is now the new Canadian immigration floor. In his 2021 annual report presented to Parliament this week, Minister Fraser set the thresholds at 431,000 for 2022, 447,000 for 2023 and 451,000 for 2024. That’s roughly 20,000 to 30,000 more than the levels advanced in the previous annual report.
If we refer to the high rather than medium target, as set out in the report for 2024, namely 475,000 immigrants, we are very close to the recommendation of the English-Canadian organization Century Initiative, which intends to convince the Trudeau government to raise the immigration threshold to 500,000 for 2026. The objective is to increase the Canadian population from 37 million to 100 million in 2100.
While the minister pushes the number of files to be processed upwards, his administrative machine does not follow. We do not know what planet Sean Fraser lives on when he writes in his report: “Fortunately, the Department has been able to adapt to the immense pressures exerted by the pandemic. The reality is that in Quebec, his ministry is dysfunctional.
The delays to obtain permanent resident status, that is to say to become a landed immigrant in good and due form after having been selected by Quebec, have increased further, reaching an average of 28 months.
Due to administrative problems, Ottawa is not even able to meet the immigration objectives transmitted to it by the Government of Quebec. The Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration has requested that a catch-up be carried out in 2021 to make up for the delays caused by the pandemic, i.e. a total of 18,000 new permanent residents. 15,000 of them are missing.
Moreover, of the 48,600 holders of a Quebec selection certificate still awaiting permanent residence, 25,000 live in Quebec and are employed. Minister Jean Boulet asked his federal counterpart to give priority to these applicants. But Ottawa is reluctant. If we take into account all categories of newcomers, 90,000 people are waiting, according to data obtained by Radio-Canada from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
It’s a double standard, because the deadlines imposed in Quebec are much longer than in the rest of Canada. Moreover, the federal authorities discriminate against foreign students from French-speaking Africa who wish to study in Quebec: the refusal rate of these students who are admitted to our CEGEPs and universities is much higher than that English-speaking foreign students.
But even more serious is that Canada, with its extremely vigorous immigration policy, is in the process of abandoning Quebec. We would like to quickly reduce our demographic weight—and that of French Quebec—within Canada and we wouldn’t do otherwise. Clearly, the rest of Canada, all things considered, receives twice as many immigrants as Quebec. If we wanted to resist this demographic erosion, we would not have to admit 53,000 immigrants, but nearly 120,000 next year and more the following years.
In this context, it is clear that the Canada-Quebec agreement on immigration, signed in 1991 by ministers Gagnon-Tremblay and McDougall, no longer holds up, at least in its mind. This agreement provided that Canada consult Quebec to establish its immigration thresholds, which it no longer does. In addition, the Canadian thresholds were to allow Quebec to receive a percentage of immigrants equal to that of its population. This is no longer possible.
This evolution of post-national Canada poses a threat to the Quebec nation. It is time—and this is a minimum—for Quebec to obtain all powers in the area of immigration.