It is easy to understand Premier Legault’s exasperation with the slow pace of discussions aimed at establishing a more equitable distribution of asylum seekers among Canadian provinces. No one likes to feel like they are being taken for a ride.
“This is going nowhere,” he said Friday at a joint press conference with Justin Trudeau to announce a $475 million investment in the Telesat Lightspeed network. In reality, he must be the last person to be surprised by this turn of events.
At the Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax last July, there was talk of a “common front” among the provinces to relieve the pressure on Quebec and, to a lesser extent, Ontario, but that seemed like wishful thinking. “There are some premiers who are somewhat open to considering the possibility of transferring asylum seekers to their countries,” Legault said. Let’s just say that his remarks reflected a certain uncertainty.
Asking Ottawa to loosen the purse strings to provide compensation to provinces facing an incessant flow of applicants was one thing; committing to welcoming them was another.
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A month ago, former Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette came out of a meeting with her federal counterpart, Marc Miller, and those from the other provinces feeling fairly optimistic. “The federal government is demonstrating a firm desire to arrive at a federally coordinated asylum seeker mechanism by the end of September,” she explained.
Clearly, Mr. Legault is not so convinced of this firmness or of Ottawa’s ability to force the provinces. While acknowledging that some of them refuse to accept applicants, Mr. Miller declared that “at some point, the provinces will have to assume their role.” He estimates that the implementation of his plan will take 6 to 12 months.
Assuming that he is acting in good faith and that he has every interest in satisfying Quebec, the only province where the Liberal Party of Canada can still hope to maintain its gains, one may wonder to what extent the Trudeau government is still able to impose its will on anyone. Besides, it is very possible that he will no longer be here in 6 or 12 months.
The end of the NDP deal made him a lame duck. Now that he could fall at any moment, why would the recalcitrant provinces give in? All they have to do is drag out the talks until voters decide his fate.
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Last June, Pierre Poilievre declared that the explosion of temporary immigration had brought Quebec to the “breaking point,” promising to reduce the number of new arrivals. As usual, however, he was careful not to go into details. It is hard to see him imposing unwanted asylum seekers on provinces led by the Conservative Party, whether Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. After all, it will be impossible to clean up all the damage caused by the Liberals!
If it were only a question of money, things would end up working out, but the problem is that these provinces, after discovering that “reception capacity” was not synonymous with xenophobia, do not want to have the same problems that Quebec is currently experiencing.
Last winter, Premier Legault said he would examine his “options” if Ottawa persisted in refusing Quebec full powers over immigration. Justin Trudeau was not very impressed, and Mr. Legault quickly moderated his ambitions, focusing more modestly on a request for a reduction in temporary immigration.
The changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which are set to come into effect on September 26, will result in a decrease of about 65,000 people across Canada, according to federal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault. That’s exactly the number of asylum seekers that Quebec alone welcomed in 2023.
After having cried out about the “Louisianization” and the “suicide” that was looming over the Quebec nation, Mr. Legault considered it more prudent to lower his tone in his interventions on the issue of migration, the measures that his government was adopting being clearly not up to the task of such a catastrophe.
If it is true that “it leads nowhere”, as he claims, he will have to do something, even if it is just pretending. Even a turkey has his pride.