CAQ’s plan on immigration takes a beating
QUEBEC Immigration Minister David Heurtel has ripped into the Coalition Avenir Québec’s new immigration plan rejecting the notion the federal government would expel or relocate undesirable immigrants at the request of Quebec.
Parti Québécois leader JeanFrançois Lisée took a similar stance, saying the plan sends a negative signal to immigrants that they are not welcome here, or will live here under a sword of Damocles.
“It amounts to throwing words in the air and hoping Ottawa follows,” added Québec solidaire MNA Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
In a five-point critique of the CAQ plan that was leaked to L’actualité Tuesday, Heurtel accused François Legault of playing the Sorcerer’s Apprentice with a highly sensitive issue at a time when Quebec has a desperate need for immigrant workers to meet labour shortages.
“It’s a very slippery slope,” Heurtel told reporters Wednesday as he arrived for a meeting of the Liberal caucus. “Mr. Legault is completely ignorant about how immigration works in Canada and Quebec.
“Fundamentally what Mr. Legault is saying is you must fear immigration and that’s scary. On the contrary, Quebec and Canada were and are built on immigration — and immigration is a good thing.
“Do we need to integrate better? Yes. Do we need our immigrants to learn French faster? Yes.
“And we have put forward a lot of measures over the last year.
“But the underlying theme (of Mr. Legault) is immigration is bad and it’s a negative, while we feel it’s a positive.”
In a 17-page orientation document prepared for a coming policy convention, the CAQ returns to a central theme in its political platform: Quebec is receiving more immigrants than it can successfully manage and integrate.
The document notes that not only do 26 per cent of immigrants leave Quebec after 10 years, their unemployment rate after five years is 15 per cent.
Fifty-nine per cent can’t speak French, the document notes.
The CAQ plan is to cut the number to 40,000 from 50,000 a year.
It stipulates a CAQ government would give economic immigrants a temporary three-year permit, referred to as a Certificat d’accompagnement transitoire (CAT) to live in Quebec.
In that period they would be tested for their knowledge of French and of Quebec values as defined by the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The document adds a new criteria before immigrants can establish themselves permanently: having a job or in the process of landing a job.
Originally, the CAQ said immigrants who fail the tests after the three-year period would be expelled, but the new document takes a step back from that hard line.
Now the document says “expelling or extradition is out of the question.”
“Never in the history of Quebec has an immigrant been expelled ( by the province),” it states. “This is the exclusive responsibility of the Canadian government and this will not change.”
Instead, a recalcitrant immigrant — one who refuses to learn French or adhere to values as per a contract they sign before arriving in Quebec — would not be eligible for a Quebec Selection Certificate, which is what they would need to apply for permanent residence from the federal government.
Once the immigrant’s three year CAT expired, Quebec would advise the federal government of the presence of a person without status.
“The federal government would then decide what measures it plans to take,” the document says.
The document stresses a CAQ government would take a “responsible and humane” approach to immigration and would institute measures — including free French courses — to help new arrivals along the path.
Extensions to the three-year periods could also be granted for people in difficult circumstances, including the parents of young children or those caring for an ill loved one.
But ultimately anyone who repeatedly fails the tests would be flagged at the federal level as living in Quebec without status.
That had the government and opposition parties hopping mad Wednesday and challenging the CAQ again to explain how the policy will work.
Premier Philippe Couillard has described the proposal as unworkable and said it sends the message that immigrants are a problem.
Officials in Ottawa said Tuesday the CAQ proposal does not match the terms of the existing Quebec-Canada agreement on immigration.
The CAQ proposes to reopen that 30-year-old deal.
But Heurtel lashed back, wondering whether a CAQ government would wind up ripping up the agreement in the event Ottawa refuses to talk.
That move could cost the province $490 million a year, he said.
And if Ottawa refuses to expel immigrants flagged by Quebec, will a CAQ government create a police force to roam Quebec, ushering out people with no status, Heurtel asked.
He also questioned the numbers the CAQ uses to back its thesis. While Quebec receives 50,000 immigrants a year, the real number of economic immigrants under its jurisdiction is only 31,000.
The knowledge of French is already a criteria for admission and gives an immigrant more points in the evaluation process and thus a better chance of being admitted.
But above all Heurtel says the CAQ plan hurts Quebec’s chances of luring the skilled and educated immigrants it desperately needs to meet labour shortages.