QS to make immigrants a priority
Party rolls out plan for hiring quotas in public service
Québec solidaire presented its plan Sunday to better integrate into Quebec society immigrants and visible minorities, which the party says are still largely absent from the public service and from political parties.
“The problem is not the immigrants and people of visible minorities. The problem is what we’re doing to integrate them,” said Manon Massé, co-spokesperson for QS at a news conference, where she was flanked by her colleague Amir Khadir and several candidates for the party who are of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Massé criticized the approach of the other political parties, including the Liberal government, which she says takes citizens from cultural communities for granted.
If elected, Québec solidaire will put into place a four-part policy to improve the integration of cultural minorities.
First of all, the party will force the public service to hire people from visible and ethnic minorities. QS wants 18 per cent of bureaucrats to come from cultural communities, including 13 per cent from visible minorities.
Of the 2,300 people appointed by the Couillard government during the last four years, only three per cent have been visible minority candidates, Massé said.
“That speaks volumes. It speaks of a government that takes them for granted,” she added.
Over the next five years, the Couillard government hopes to reach the 18-per-cent level of representation, it announced recently.
QS also hopes to create immigrant welcoming centres, whose goal would be to guide them to all the resources available to them. The centres, which would operate across Quebec, would also be responsible for attracting immigrants to the regions.
This resource once existed — the famous Centre d’orientation et de formation des immigrants (COFI) — and it was essential, according to Massé.
“We need to have workers all over Quebec, and so we need that link. It’s not true that when you arrive at Dorval airport, you know that on the north coast they need people in the mines, or that in Gaspésie they need people to work on wind energy. Those bridges have to be built,” she said.
The party also wants to work on francization and the recognition of foreign credentials — a difficult problem to solve given the numerous professional orders in Quebec.
To that end, the party intends to work with the Order of professions to adopt a “general framework” to recognize diplomas and credentials that would apply to all the professions.
Québec solidaire also encourages the other political parties to present more candidates of diverse ethnic backgrounds. The party boasts that to date, 17 per cent of its candidates are from minorities.
“Ethnic minorities in Quebec vote in fewer numbers than the overall Quebec population. One of the ways to increase the number of voters of immigrant backgrounds is to ensure that they are better reflected in the composition of the National Assembly,” said Andrés Fontecilla, QS candidate for the Laurier-Dorion riding and former party president.