The Parti Québécois proposes to reduce the immigration threshold to 35,000 people per year.
This reduction is intended to take into account the reception capacity of Quebec, explained the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, during a press conference in Lévis.
By raising the threshold from 50,000 to 35,000 people per year, the PQ would bring this ceiling back to the level of the 1990s. According to the PQ, the increase in thresholds was followed by a decline in French.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon affirmed that, contrary to the rhetoric conveyed by some of his opponents, immigration does not solve the labor shortage. According to the PQ leader, immigration even has the potential to increase it.
Newcomers need services and housing, which puts pressure on the host society, says Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
“A person’s 40-hour work week, when you compare it to their consumption and the work that it requires, it’s pretty much the same,” he said. When we look at macroeconomic analyses, it is wrong to say that high immigration thresholds will make up for the labor shortage. »
This reality is all the more restrictive with shortages of teachers and personnel in the health network, underlines the PQ leader.
“We are in a housing crisis, we have shortages of teachers and doctors. So our reception capacity is less, it has changed”.
Other means
If elected, the PQ will require that 100% of economic immigrants have a knowledge of French before their arrival.
The PQ will target the regionalization of 50% of newcomers, with a “fast track” for those who commit to settling in the regions and financial incentives for them to stay there.
A foreign student who finds a job in the region once he graduates would get his tuition fees reimbursed.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon wants to save Montreal from the risk of ghettoization.
“The models that work are those of diversity. The models where there are more difficulties, in Europe, especially in the big cities, are the models where there has been ghettoization by ethnocultural communities, he said. Unfortunately, Canada overvalues ethnocultural identities, while our model is universalist. Everyone is Quebecois. »
The PQ will increase integration budgets by 50%, from $120 million to $180 million per year.
The number of places available for foreign students who do not speak French will be capped so that it corresponds to the weight of students attending English-speaking institutions, i.e. approximately 20% of the total.
“It’s a way to give French a chance as a common language on the island of Montreal, around McGill and Concordia universities,” explained the PQ leader.