Five months before the elections, the debate on immigration is reignited: the Parti Québécois (PQ) opposes the request of employer groups who would like to increase the current number of immigrants from 50,000 immigrants per year to 80,000, even 90,000.
The separatist formation first calls for a “serene” discussion, based on “factual and scientific” data.
The PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, thus reacted to the concerted outing of several business associations, including the Conseil du patronat du Québec and the association Manufacturiers et exportation du Québec, which are calling for a considerable increase in annual immigration threshold in order to compensate for the scarcity of labour.
In an interview with The Canadian Press published on Sunday, the leader of the PQ maintains that, despite the constant increases in the number of immigrants admitted to Quebec over the past thirty years, the demand for workers has not diminished. The so-called solution has therefore not solved the problem, according to him.
What is more, the considerable increase claimed would only increase the demand for services, whether for family doctors, places in early childhood centers (CPE), or even housing, raised the specialist lawyer. in immigration Stéphane Handfield, who is a PQ candidate in Masson in the October elections.
“Are we doing a service to new immigrants if we do not take these questions into account in our capacity to welcome and integrate? he asked.
“We want a debate based on science and not on ideology or false premises,” said Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
He therefore calls for caution to avoid any slippage in this debate, which has had unfortunate precedents.
“The simple fact of asking questions about the increase in the immigration threshold leads to innuendo on the intolerance of those who ask the questions, it creates an atmosphere that is not serene,” lamented Mr. St- Pierre Plamondon.
“Historically, we have poured a lot into ideology and stigmatization” on immigration, and this ends up harming “Quebec’s right to be able to take its own directions,” said the independence leader.
As soon as Quebec does not align itself with the Canadian federal model aimed at admitting ever more newcomers, it is accused of being racist, while immigration is partly within its jurisdiction, he laments.
Questions
The leader of the Parti Québécois asks many questions. Among other things, does welcoming more immigrants create more wealth, truly increase gross domestic product per capita?
“We want to study macroeconomics objectively,” he demands, asking for other answers.
What is the impact of an increase in immigration on linguistic dynamics? What is the impact on the housing crisis? Does it lower the average age of the workforce?
“I’ve never seen a study that says ‘this is why we need 30,000 or 40,000 immigrants, or this is how we manage to justify this figure'”, indicated Stéphane Handfield. “How much does the integration of each immigrant cost? ” he asks.
However, “we are always told the same thing: 80,000 immigrants a year, and all the problems will be solved”.
Currently, there are no less than 240,000 vacancies to be filled in Quebec, according to data from the Institut du Québec.
Employer associations are calling for a catch-up in immigration to remedy the scarcity of labor and the delay due to the closure of borders during the pandemic.
Their consensus is 80,000 per year, but the president of Manufacturers and Exporters, Véronique Proulx, would be ready to go up to 90,000. This is almost double the current threshold of 50,000 per year.
The Legault government has not given its official response. But where does the PQ set the bar?
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon reiterates that he is committed to setting the acceptable threshold for his training between now and the election campaign.