Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a point of clarifying his remarks on Tuesday that he should make the “observation” that Quebec “has the capacity”, according to him, to welcome up to 112,000 immigrants per year, in the face of disapproving comments from the Quebec Minister of Immigration and certain opposition parties in the Commons.
In a year-end interview with The Canadian PressMr. Trudeau had, in his answer to a question in which this figure was presented to him, repeated the latter.
“Quebec currently has the full capacity to welcome 112,000 immigrants per year. […] It is an observation, ”he said on Monday.
The Prime Minister was challenged by the fact that Quebeckers represent 22.3% of the Canadian population and that this figure of 112,000 therefore corresponds to the proportion of the 500,000 immigrants that his government recently announced that it wanted to welcome annually by 2025.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trudeau returned to his remarks during question period, Bloc and Conservatives accusing him of interfering in the decision of Quebec to set its own immigration thresholds.
“I did not offer figures for Quebec, he argued. I recognized that Quebec had the capacity to increase its immigration thresholds if it wanted to. They have these powers because we recognize the importance that Quebec has in protecting the French language and the Quebec nation. »
Yet, during the year-end interview, he did mention “112,000” by name in response to a question.
“I am not recommending it [les 112 000 immigrants] either, “then nuanced Mr. Trudeau.
The journalists of The Canadian Press had just brought to his attention the gap between the figure of 112,000 immigrants and the thresholds of 50,000 and 70,000 which were mentioned respectively, during the provincial election campaign, by the government of François Legault and the Liberal Party of Quebec. Québec solidaire, for its part, proposed that the province receive between 60,000 and 80,000 newcomers per year.
The Federal Prime Minister explained his “observation” by referring to the agreement between Quebec and Ottawa on immigration, which gives Quebec all the tools necessary to welcome 112,000 immigrants.
In his exchanges with the Commons, Mr. Trudeau insisted that “it is a decision for Quebec and we respect the jurisdictions at this level”.
However, the official Conservative opposition rather interpreted the Prime Minister’s remarks as a “directive”, summed up in a press scrum his political lieutenant for Quebec, Pierre Paul-Hus.
“Mr. Trudeau says: ‘We can have up to 112,000 immigrants in Quebec.’ The Government of Quebec says: “No. We calculated that for us, to properly welcome immigrants, it’s 50,000”. So Mr. Trudeau is indirectly making a form of effort to impose an immigration threshold for Quebec, which we consider should not be done,” he said.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet also believes that Mr. Trudeau wants to impose his vision.
“In 24 hours, the Prime Minister says that Quebec must welcome 112,000 immigrants. “Oh ! I don’t impose it”, but all the other times he said that he would like to impose it”, he mentioned during the question period.
He also suggested that the federal government was in no position to speak because of the backlog in the processing of immigration files.
“Should he redo his homework and let Quebec manage both immigration and French? “, thundered Mr. Blanchet.
On the side of the government of François Legault, the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Christine Fréchette, declared in writing that the remarks of Mr. Trudeau seem to him “insensitive”.
“It’s up to Quebec, and Quebec alone, to determine its immigration thresholds,” she said. The minister was unavailable for an interview on Tuesday.
According to her, Quebec has “a double challenge, which is unique in Canada”, namely to tackle the shortage of labor while stopping the decline of French, “which Mr. Trudeau seems to remain insensitive to. “, she added.