(Quebec) Prime Ministers François Legault and Justin Trudeau will meet Monday in Quebec on the immigration issue. Mr. Legault has shown himself dissatisfied so far with the state of discussions with Ottawa, while he is calling for a “significant” drop in the number of temporary immigrants.
He recently deplored the fact that there had been little progress regarding a better distribution of asylum seekers across the country.
Quebec has 560,000 temporary immigrants and this creates strong pressure on public services, according to François Legault.
“I need the support of Quebecers to convince the federal government to act quickly. […] This issue must become an emergency for Quebecers,” because “the time is serious for our nation,” he said during the general council of the Coalition Avenir Québec on June 25.
He then put away his threat of a referendum on the repatriation of full immigration powers to Quebec if he does not win his case during his next meeting with Justin Trudeau. “Even doing a sectoral referendum, we already know that there are 65% of Quebecers who would agree to transfer immigration powers,” he said during a press scrum. “What I hope is that over the next few weeks and months, this becomes the main issue. » Particularly during the next federal election, between now and fall 2025.
Is he afraid that Justin Trudeau will not satisfy him at the next meeting? “I always hope that, in the meeting, we will perhaps have some good news, but for the moment […], there are committees being set up, but things are not moving. »
During their last meeting on March 15, Justin Trudeau refused to transfer full immigration powers to Quebec, a request from François Legault. The latter, however, stressed that his counterpart is open to a tightening in the issuance of visas as is the case for Mexicans, to the fact that temporary foreign workers selected by Ottawa are first approved by the government of Quebec and to that knowledge of French is part of the criteria for the federal program.
“If Ottawa made sure to have a certificate of acceptance from Quebec for all temporary workers, that would already give Quebec a kind of veto right over all temporary workers. Already, it would be a gain,” said Mr. Legault at the end of this meeting.
Quebec is also demanding a billion dollars from Ottawa to cover the bill linked to the reception of asylum seekers.
