Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Quebec’s premier Francois Legault of saying things he knows aren’t true about immigration to the francophone province.
“It is a shame to hear the (premier) of Quebec sharing things and declarations on immigration that he simply knows are not true,” Trudeau reportedly said.
“We have worked together constructively, or we have certainly worked with members of his team constructively, over the past many, many months to take action in response to the challenges around immigration in Quebec.”
The war of words between Trudeau and Legault comes in the wake of an attempt by the provincial leader to try to bring down the federal, Liberal government last month.
Fed up over what he sees as too-high levels of temporary immigration, Legault attempted to bring down the federal government and make a reduction in temporary immigration a central issue in the next federal election.
Legault tried, unsuccessfully, to enlist the aid of a federal political party committed to Quebec nationalism, the Bloc Québécois, to bring down the Trudeau government.
That would have forced an early election which Legault was hoping to use to pressure Ottawa into lowering temporary immigration to the country.
He vowed to support a federal political party only if it pledged to lower temporary immigration to Canada.
“Each political party will have commitments to make and the commitment that the federal parties will make to reducing the number of temporary immigrants in the short term will be very important in determining whether or not I support a political party,” the Quebec premier reportedly said.
Two federal ministers called Legault to task over his claims that high levels of immigration are putting pressure on housing in the province and making it impossible to properly integrate newcomers into the Quebecois society.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Public Security Minister Dominic LeBlanc together sent a letter to Quebec’s new immigration minister, Jean-François Roberge, on Sept. 24 in which they claimed to be surprised that the premier feels the federal government’s efforts over the past six months have been insufficient.
In the letter to Roberge, a copy of which was reportedly obtained by The Canadian Press news agency, Miller and LeBlanc claimed they wanted to “set the record straight.”
Give Us Your Plan, Trudeau Tells Legault
Now, Trudeau himself has waded into the fray and strongly suggested the Quebec premier has been dragging his feet on the immigration portfolio.
The Canadian prime minister is defending his government’s actions and saying it is Legault who has failed to put forth a plan to cut temporary immigration in Quebec.
“I asked Mr. Legault to give us a plan, his plan, particularly on temporary foreign workers here in Quebec,” Trudeau reportedly said.
“And many, many months later, we are still waiting to see what his plan is for his responsibilities around temporary immigration here in Quebec.”
Miller and LeBlanc have suggested that Quebec share with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) the data it needs to identify asylum seekers ready to settle outside Quebec.
“We believe that this initiative would have a better chance of success if Quebec joined forces with us to encourage conservative provincial governments to participate, rather than encouraging a motion of censure by (Conservative Leader) Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives,” their letter reportedly stated.
A francophone province, Quebec has maintained it cannot properly welcome and integrate all immigrants with the current record-high rate of immigration in Canada.
Legault has repeatedly called for the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec to be cut in half.
“Over the past two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has doubled from 300,000 to 600,000,” wrote Legault on Facebook.
“The federal government is largely responsible for this explosion in the number of temporary immigrants. It has been asked to reduce by half the number of those under its responsibility. We must reduce the number of immigrants to protect our public services, to take pressure off housing and to protect the French language, particularly in Montreal.”
As Quebec’s new immigration minister and French-language czar, Roberge says the province is facing major challenges on the immigration front.
“This combination of functions (I have) will increase the effectiveness of the government’s actions, which is essential in the particular context where the number of temporary immigrants is exploding and where the challenges of welcoming and integrating, as well as protecting French, are more present than ever,” said Roberge.
In their letter to him, the two federal ministers highlighted changes Ottawa has made to address Quebec’s concerns, including its signing of an extra protocol for the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States.
That initiative came into force in March last year and has cut the number of illegal immigrant crossings at the Canadian border, a major irritant for Quebec.
In February this year, Ottawa also introduced a partial visa requirement for Mexican citizens, who represented about 17 per cent of all asylum claims in 2023, noted the ministers in their letter.
Since then, the number of claims filed by Mexicans has dropped by more than 75 per cent.
Trudeau met with Legault over the immigration portfolio as recently as this past June, resulting in extra immigration measures to help asylum seekers land jobs.
Measures To Improve Immigration To Canada Have Been Made In The Past Year
“For example, Employment and Social Development Canada has added a function to the Job Bank to match asylum seekers with job opportunities across the country, and this function is already starting to be used,” the letter reportedly stated.
“Immigration is a shared jurisdiction, and the government of Canada is seeking collaboration and concrete actions from the government of Quebec so that certain commitments communicated last June can produce more results.”
In November last year, Legault stated his government’s immigration target in 2024 would be about 50,000 newcomers, about the same as this year, in an attempt to prevent the erosion of the French language and Quebecois culture.
“We chose … to keep the thresholds, so the total number of permanent immigrants accepted per year at 50,000,” Legault reportedly said in November.
“We had evaluated the possibility of increasing it to 60,000, but it’s important for us, to stop, to reverse the decline of French.”
The dramatic rise in the number of temporary residents to the province, though, has underscored the need of employers in Quebec to find solutions to the labour shortages they face and the desire of universities and colleges there to tap into the lucrative international student market.
Often, those temporary workers and international students then seek to immigrate to Canada through either the federal Express Entry system’s Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program, Federal Skilled Trades (FST) program and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) of the provinces.
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Waiting To Receive Quebec’s Immigration Plan
