On the eve of a meeting between Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and François Legault on the subject of immigration, the spokesperson for the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) on immigration, André Albert Morin, asks the government to CAQ to repatriate the management of the International Mobility Program, which is currently in the hands of the federal government.
“The CAQ has lost control of immigration, and particularly temporary immigration which is in the midst of a crisis. So, if Quebec wants to be able to truly manage temporary immigration, what I propose to them […] it is that they are capable of repatriating all the temporary workers. And among the temporary ones, there is the Federal Mobility Program,” said Mr. Morin in an interview on Sunday.
The International Mobility Program allows employers “to hire a temporary worker without obtaining a labor market impact study,” we can read on the federal government website.
“Currently, the federal government issues permits for temporary workers, and the government also issues them, so it’s a question of consistency. Then, obviously, to be able to really have an overall picture and to properly control temporary immigration,” said the member for the Acadie riding.
Mr. Morin believes that the government could repatriate the program without having to reopen the 1991 Gagnon-Tremblay-McDougall agreement, which defines the roles of Quebec and the federal government in matters of immigration.
“This agreement, which has existed over the years, must be interpreted in its spirit, and I think that we must give it a broad interpretation which aims to give Quebec a very large number of responsibilities in terms of immigration. So personally I don’t see why we couldn’t address this issue within the framework of the agreement,” explained Mr. Morin.
The PLQ MP says he has high expectations in connection with the meeting of the prime ministers of Canada and Quebec on Monday.
“I think that the government, Mr. Legault, has an obligation to deliver results tomorrow (Monday). Mr. Legault has been talking to us about immigration for weeks. There, he has an opportunity to come to an agreement with the federal government to better manage all aspects of immigration, he argued. If he wants to better control temporary workers, then let him repatriate the federal mobility program, ask for it and get it. »
“And then for the whole question of refugees, Quebec has done more than its share, and now, the federal government must be able to compensate,” added Mr. Morin.
Last May, it was agreed during a meeting of immigration ministers from the federal government and the various provincial governments, in Montreal, to create a working committee which will look into a better distribution of asylum seekers in country.
Quebec’s Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, said she was satisfied with this meeting, and indicated that the ministers “recognized that Quebec and Ontario are experiencing disproportionate pressure related to asylum seekers.”
According to the Quebec Ministry of Immigration, since 2017, the province has welcomed more than 230,000 asylum seekers, representing 50.7% of all asylum seekers arriving in Canada while Quebec only represents 22% of the demographic weight in Canada.
Mr. Morin therefore expects that Prime Minister Legault will obtain money from the federal government for this reason, in addition to obtaining the Mobility Program.
On Friday, Mr. Legault also announced the creation of a committee for the autonomy of Quebec within the Canadian federation, which will notably evaluate immigration. Mr. Morin indicated that the PLQ “will study this committee very carefully”.
With information from Stéphane Blais, The Canadian Press